Daily Times

Noted former US president Abraham Lincoln once said that “Any country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who really inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, then can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it.”

Any country or state cannot envision development unless it envisions peace, stability and interdependence on a great reformed system. An aimless strategy of continuous agitation or disruption would not help the country to run forward.

Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) which had been launched by the opposition parties for their own political gains, were pursuing the policy of anti-state elements who want to disintegrate and weaken the national institutions, Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) Hanif Patafi said.

He said, “We cannot afford political turmoil or instability in the country at a time when India was conspiring against Pakistan and its institutions, adding the opposition should reconsider the negative policy of holding protest rallies. “Our armed forces always played a key role in the progress and security of the country at both national and international fronts,” he replied to a query.

The so-called rallies of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) were a conspiracy against the armed forces, and the current scenario was being launched under an “international conspiracy” to destabilise the country.

PTI leader Nazar Muhammad Gondal said that though the opposition parties had the constitutional right to demonstrate, protest against the initiatives of the existing regime, the opposition parties had no viable alternatives which they could submit or suggest as a comprehensive planning. He said that the PTI government’s stimulus package of Rs 1,200 billion had supported the destitute strata of the society. The opposition parties (PML-N and PPP) who completed their five-year terms each during the past many decades were now raising questions about the performance of the PTI government, he regretted.

To mitigate the pandemic’s socioeconomic damages, the incumbent Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government has initiated an unprecedented Ehsaas Emergency Cash programme which was the largest social-protection programme in the ruling history of the country, he said while replying to a query. It has been a tradition in the world that the opposition had always a very constructive and positive role in the parliaments but here the situation was quite different.

The tentative appearance of a so called grand opposition alliance namely Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) could better help strengthen parliamentary politics through adopting a healthy process of legislation, he added. Now after Gujranwala and Karachi agitation meetings, it seems the agenda of opposition is not national construction rather it has taken the path of destabilising the current government and the country, he stressed.

Federal Minister for Industries and Production Hammad Azhar in his address at the National Assembly session on Friday had said that the economy of the country was in miserable condition during the tenures of the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) therefore, adding Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government had to take tough decisions to come over the financial crisis of the country. During his address the minister had said that the foreign exchange reserves in the country were now improving and the current account deficit was shrinking. The government had cleared short-term liabilities worth Rs400 billion, he added. “The government paid off over $10 billion in debt in its first year in power, which was the highest debt servicing done by any government, the minister observed. The PTI government had stabilized the prices of wheat in three provinces and efforts were afoot to reduce the price in Sindh,” he said.

Furthermore, according to the World Bank’s statistics the lockdown and restrictions amid-COVID-19 across the globe had severely affected low-income households in a country, where the persons who earn their livelihood, an average less than US $ a day. It is worth mentioning here that the United Nation’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs has released recently a new report of World Economic Situation and Prospects mid-2020, which shows that global economic losses amid COVID-19 would likely cause an estimated 34.3 million additional people’s fall below the extreme poverty line in 2020.

Meanwhile, it merits a mention here that the Prime Minister Imran Khan while addressing the convention of Tiger Force in Islamabad on Saturday had asked the National Accountability Bureau and the courts to bring mega corruption cases to logical conclusion at the earliest. The people of Pakistan wanted to see the recovery of the plundered money. The Prime Minister said while referring to the top leadership of the opposition parties that they had looted the country for the past three decades but their cases had not yet been decided. The courts and the NAB were independent institutions but he would further strengthen the institutions which were under his direct control to nab these corrupt elements, the prime minister added.