Daily Times

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Shibli Faraz has said that the government has managed to stabilise the economy and bring down inflation despite Covid-19.

Addressing a news conference in Islamabad on Tuesday after the cabinet meeting, the information minister expressed satisfaction that the prices of essential commodities including that of sugar and wheat flour are coming down.

He said, “Our aim is to generate economic activity to create job opportunities for the people. We are constructing two new dams and two new cities.” The information minister said the government is trying to address the internal and external challenges faced by the country but regretted that the opposition is bent upon damaging the country’s interests and putting the lives of the people at stake by holding gatherings.

He lamented PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz and said that the daughter of an absconder is lecturing them on how to run the affairs of the state. He said that the opposition has promoted a society where respect is owned through money and they could never desire for the country to stand on its own feet.

“It was due to their policies that employment was awarded on favouritism and recommendations,” he said. The information minister said the aim of opposition parties, which were rejected by the people in the 2018 elections, is not to serve the country but to protect their vested interests. He said that this is a democratic and elected government and the opposition parties will have to wait for the next three to eight years.

He said it was during their regimes that the institutions were paralysed and nepotism was promoted. He said the opposition parties do not want Pakistan to move in the right direction. He, however, made it clear that no NRO will be given to the corrupt leaders.

“Since PPP won the Sindh province, there was no rigging in these polls but from other seats, they are raising a hue and cry over rigging and same applies for Maulana Fazlur Rehman and PML-N,” he said and added the opposition is no one to ask the incumbent government to go home.

He said that the opposition is divided over the issue of the resignation as Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Maryam Nawaz would go for the resignations as they are not part of the parliamentary politics.

The information minister said that the opposition cannot blackmail the government through pressure tactics. He, however, said, “We are ready to hold negotiations with them on the issues faced by the country.” Shibli Faraz appealed to the masses to stay away from the rallies of opposition whose politics is based on lies. He said the people should fully adhere to the SOPs to cope with the second wave of Covid-19 which is proving to be more fatal as compared to the first one.