Daily Times

The government has decided to recover the public money spent by the former rulers on travel, Hajj and Umrah in violation of the rules.

“On the recommendations of the cabinet, it was decided that the money spent by the former rulers on travel, Hajj and Umrah expenses in violation of rules from the year 2008 to 2018 will be recovered from them,” Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan Friday told a press conference organised to brief media about decisions taken by the federal cabinet at a meeting held a day earlier. She said former prime ministers Yousaf Raza Gilani, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and former president Mamnoon Hussain also misused the public money. The nation paid Rs 270 million for expenses of former president Mamnoon Hussain, she added.

Dr Firdous said Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) chairman briefed the cabinet about the activities of the ‘organised criminal mafia’ and its shameless affairs in the national airlines. She said the opposition used the aircraft as a rickshaw during the years 2008-2018 when they were in power. “The national carrier was turned into personal carrier which did personal duties of former rulers,” she noted, revealing that for 21 times, flights of PIA were re-routed to Sukkur and the national exchequer was deprived of a huge amount of money.

“Airplanes were used indiscriminately from 2008 to 2018 and cronies were inducted. The per plane ratio of crew reached 500 instead of the standard 200,” she said, adding that hundreds of people were given jobs in PIA on political basis and the PIA union had 33 offices in its possession. “Rs 1.06 billion were spent on 50 special flights and Rs 954 million losses were suffered by the national airlines due to this practice,” she said, adding that Rs 280 million were paid for parking of a PIA plane at an airport in London as a former prime minister was getting medical treatment in the hospital.

Dr Firdous said due to efforts of the government, the earning of PIA has increased by 40 percent, adding that through an austerity drive the expenditure have been cut by 20 percent. “Now PIA has started a journey towards profitability and capacity building of its human resource is being done,” she added.

Dr Firdous said people have rejected the baseless and false propaganda of the opposition and its criticism against Prime Minister Imran Khan is only due to animosity and hostility towards him. She said Pakistan needs stability and a suitable environment so that the nation, drowned in debt, can get investment from abroad. “We want to end poverty and unemployment from the country,” she said, adding that the opposition has the right to protest but it should not tantamount to creating anarchy in the country.

She said the people have the right to decide about the future of a government after completion of its tenure on the basis of performance. She said Prime Minister Imran Khan is making full efforts for restoring the positive image of the nation and for dispelling the negative propaganda against the country.

She said people disassociated themselves from the protest of the opposition on July 25 because it did not have anything to do with their problems. She said only a few hundred people came out on the call of the opposition in Lahore which shows that their show has failed and the people have rejected their criticism against the prime minister. She said groups of people gathered in different cities and tried to create chaos in the guise of protest, adding that the hue and cry of the opposition is baseless and unfounded.

She said it has been decided in the federal cabinet meeting that the government will not stop rallies and public meetings of the opposition. She said the government believed in role of the opposition and its right to protest. She said that Prime Minister Imran Khan has no personal enmity against the opposition parties’ leadership. “He only wants that the plundered national wealth is recovered from them. If the opposition faces the cases about corruption in courts and returns the laundered money, the government is ready to work with it,” she added. To a question, she said that Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has proposed media courts on the pattern of tax courts. She, however, clarified that it will not be imposed without the consensus among the stakeholders.