Daily Times

The federal cabinet on Tuesday approved easing of lockdown measures and the restrictions imposed in the country to stem the spread of coronavirus from May 9.

The final decision in this regard will be taken at a meeting of the National Command and Control Centre on May 6 (Wednesday), Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shibli Faraz told media at a briefing about the decisions made at the cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Faraz said Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar gave a comprehensive briefing to the cabinet over the coronavirus situation in the country. It was informed that Pakistan’s situation is far better than that of many developed countries. He said the prime minister and all the cabinet members, including ministers, ministers of state, advisors and special assistants, decided to donate their one-month salary to the Prime Minister’s Covid-19 Relief Fund. The gesture was made in view of the prevalent situation and difficulties faced by the people, he added.

The minister said the cabinet was informed that the Committee on Election Reforms has sent its report to the Ministry of Law and Justice. The prime minister desired that the election process should be transparent and unbiased, which should also enjoy the trust of the masses. The prime minister said reforming the electoral system is part of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s agenda and it will remain the topmost priority of its government, he added.

The prime minister stressed the need to reform the criminal justice system as the cases linger on for decades. He asked the minister for law and justice to finalize the reformation process in the criminal justice system within six months. He advised that modern technology should be introduced at police stations to change the ‘Thana culture’. The meeting was updated on the conversion of police stations into model police stations with the introduction of modern technology.

Shibli Faraz said on the PM’s directives, the cabinet was informed that 76 illegal appointments were made on high posts in seven divisions during the previous government. The ministries concerned were directed to present reports on those appointments in the next cabinet meeting. Any decision regarding the illegal appointments will be made soon, he added.

It was informed that in 81 cabinet meetings, a total of 1,630 decisions were made, out of which 1,376 (86%) have been implemented whereas on 114 decisions (7%) are in the process of implementation. The minister said the cabinet deliberated on the issue of ban on import of goods from India, except life-saving drugs. The prime minister directed to ensure that there is no violation of the ban.

He said the cabinet approved the appointment of Naveed Asghar Chaudhry, a grade 20 officer of the Audit and Accounts Service of Pakistan, as Member Finance WAPDA.

He said the cabinet also gave formal approval to the reconstitution of National Commission for Minorities.

Shibli Faraz said the cabinet approved a memorandum of understanding signed between Akuwat Pakistan and Akuwat USA, which will help in collection of donations for the PM’s Corona Relief Fund. He said the cabinet also gave approval for export of locally made hand surplus sanitizers to earn foreign exchange.

Noting that there is surplus quantity of rice available in the country, the cabinet accorded approval for its export. It also decided to include 61 food and non-food items in PSQCA’s quality control list, he added.

The cabinet also reviewed the process of implementation on its decisions for the facilitation of overseas Pakistanis. The minister said that SAPM on Social Welfare Dr Sania Nishtar briefed the cabinet about the ongoing process of financial help of vulnerable segments of the society through the Ehsaas Emergency Cash Programme. It was informed that in addition to 400,000 families as per the data of previous governments, almost 810,000 new ones have been added. The programme is being implemented in a most transparent manner and on merit, Dr Sania Nishtar said.

Senator Shibli Faraz said the policies of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leadership have never been people friendly as they initiated mega projects during their regimes only to mint money. He quoted an International Monetary Fund team, which recently visited Pakistan, as saying that the projects carried out by the PML-N governments were 50 per cent costlier than those in other parts of the world.

He said at this difficult time, both the PML-N and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) are not worried about the people as they are trying to hoodwink them with catchy slogans and statements. The PTI government, however, firmly believes that it is time to serve the people without any political point scoring.

Faraz said replying to the news conferences addressed by the PML-N and PPP leaders and ministers is the government’s right. “If they will speak against the government instead of supporting it on the virus issue, they will definitely get a reaction,” he said. “It is up to the opposition that if they are not willing to support the government at the critical time,” he said, and, however, appealed to them not to impede the government’s endeavours to deal with the virus and provide relief to the vulnerable segments of the society.

He expressed the confidence that the cases against the Sharif family members will be decided on the basis of justice and the looted money will be recovered from them. Referring to the media talk of PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb a day earlier, the minister said she gave an impression as if an honest, gentleman and pious man has been degraded by summoning him to the NAB office and that the questions put to him by the NAB team were so easy. “If it were so, then why was she so angry. It means, when a law body summons you, you consider it a disrespect to appear before it, which means you don’t care for any such institution. The impression given to the people is that you are above the law. This is reflective of their mindset i.e. for the sake of the word, their rule was democratic but practically, it was monarchy with a typical mindset,” the minister asserted.

The Sharifs, he said, tended to challenge the law instead of submitting before it for looting the national wealth and stashing it abroad. They made the assets at the cost of national exchequer, he said, adding that Nawaz Sharif has settled down in London flats worth billions of rupees whereas Shehbaz Sharif, who returned to the country, was seen in front of a laptop instead of standing among public in this hard time. “Actions speak louder than words,” he asserted.

About PPP leader Saeed Ghani’s news conference, he said the party, which used to rule the whole country, is now confined to just one province, because of the incompetence and anti-people policies of its leadership. The PPP, he said, had given the slogan of ‘bread, clothes and shelter’ but its leaders started looting the people and one could imagine that it would now be reduced to Larkana only. The province of Sindh is much better 50 years ago as compared to its state of affairs today, he added.

He recalled that the incumbent NAB chairman was appointed after mutual consultation between the PML-N and the PPP as the government and opposition respectively. He appealed to the media to not to give live coverage to the accused grilled by NAB as they make mockery of justice system by flashing victory signs and behaving like a ‘Tarzan’ in front of cameras.