Daily Times

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday directed the authorities concerned to ensure that the impact of a reduction in petroleum prices was shifted to the masses in the form of decreased transport fares and prices of eatables.

The prime minister, chairing the meeting of the Federal Cabinet, asked the Interior Ministry and the district administrations across the country to ensure the reduction in commodities’ prices.

Calling for strict action against the profiteers, he said the transport fares and eatables’ prices should be reduced in proportion to the 11 percent decrease in the petroleum prices announced by the government.

Apprising the Federal Cabinet about his visit to Iran on Thursday, the prime minister said Pakistan desired to enhance cooperation with the neighbouring country in multiple sectors.

He told the meeting that the two sides had agreed to improve the security along the 900-kilometer Pak-Iran border. Both sides had emphasised the joint efforts to counter cross-border terrorism, he added. He said the import of low-cost electricity from Iran would help uplift the remote areas of Balochistan. He said Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi took a personal interest to ensure the completion of the much-delayed 100MW Gabd-Polan power transmission line within record time.

The project would ensure the power supply to southern Balochistan, particularly Gwadar, he remarked. Similarly, he said, the Mand-Pishin border marketplace would create employment opportunities for the people on both sides of the border and usher in a new era of development. Prime Minister Shehbaz told the cabinet that the Iranian president had expressed special interest in enhancing bilateral trade, besides discussing cooperation in the fields of agriculture, science and technology, and solar energy. A high-level delegation led by Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto would visit Iran for further deliberations on the said projects.

The prime minister also extended an invitation to President Raisi to visit Pakistan which he accepted. Briefing the cabinet members regarding the Road to Makkah project signed between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, the prime minister said it would help facilitate the Hajj pilgrims. Under the project, he said, around 26,143 Hajj pilgrims would undergo the immigration process at the Islamabad International Airport and would be exempted from the lengthy process at Saudi airports. The implementation of the project was initiated on Thursday and hopefully it would be extended to Lahore and Karachi airports by next year, he added. The cabinet also approved the establishment of an Insurance Tribunal in Rawalpindi. It would incur no additional expenses as the existing Accountability Court No. 4 would be converted into the Insurance Tribunal.

It endorsed the decisions of the National Security Committee made in its meeting on May 16 and those of the Cabinet Committee on Legislative Cases made on May 11. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Friday said the ideology of Pakistan was more sacred and powerful than the wicked and selfish intent of Imran Niazi. In a tweet on social media platform Twitter, he said he was thinking about the negative effects and consequences of the shameful, tragic and unfortunate incidents of May 9. “The more I think about this dark day, the more my grief and anger grow as we ourselves have become the enemy of the ideology of Pakistan.”

After dividing the public, Imran Niazi was busy in ridiculing the state institutions, the prime minister said adding when all his efforts to get the government failed then Imran Niazi attacked the state of Pakistan with his hateful narrative and gangs of rioters. “Maybe he (Imran) did not realize that the ideology of Pakistan is more sacred and powerful than his wicked and selfish intent. With the will of Allah he will face defeat,” he added.