Daily Times

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Husain Tuesday said the government is committed to introduce electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the next general elections to ensure free, fair and transparent polls, but the opposition has shown no interest in carrying out electoral reforms due to their ‘vested interests’.

“If free and fair elections are held in Pakistan, the PML-N will never win and the politics of Sharif family will come to an end. Therefore, they have no interest in the electoral reforms,” he said, while addressing a news conference after meeting of the federal cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan. “Not even a single government in the past including that of PML-N and PPP ever made efforts to improve the electoral system in the country and now when they are in opposition, they are still resisting the move,” he added.

He said it is unfortunate that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government has to deal with the most non-serious, incapable and inefficient opposition of the history of the country. “Their only interest was to save the party’s leadership from the ongoing accountability process,” he added.

Fawad said they had never given any viewpoint on the ongoing Afghanistan situation or the issue of refugees looming large over the country, regretting that the party of Mohtarma Shaheed Benazir Bhutto was being run by ‘political clowns’.

He said the government made every effort to persuade the opposition on electoral reforms, but unfortunately, the opposition had developed a habit of rejecting the government drafts for reforms without even reading its single word. They even did not bother to give their own proposals for electoral reforms, he added.

The minister said both the PML-N and PPP were resisting the electoral reforms deliberately as they knew that both Maryam Nawaz and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari could only become the prime minister through manipulated and rigged general elections. Despite the opposition’s non-serious attitude, the government was determined to complete its agenda of reforms with the support of the masses, he added.

Referring to the Federal Government Employees Housing Authority audit report for 2018-19 submitted to the Public Accounts Committee lately, the minister said it was very unfortunate that as to how poor people were exploited in Islamabad especially after acquiring their lands in suburban areas to oblige favorite ones including bureaucrats, journalists and judges. He said Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed serious reservations over the process of allotting plots to government officers including journalists and judges after acquiring lands from poor people in the federal capital. He said PM Imran Khan had constituted a committee to formulate a comprehensive policy in accordance with principles laid down by the Islamabad High Court’s chief justice over the matter.

About presence of Pakistan on the UK’s red list for travel, the minister said Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Health Services Dr Faisal Sultan had held a detailed discussion with the UK’s Chief Medical Scientists and removed their concerns about Pakistan’s Coronavirus related data. He expressed hope that the authorities in UK would review its policy in that regard.

The minister said the federal cabinet had fixed prices of Remdesivir, a life-saving injection for coronavirus patients, at Rs 3,967 by bringing it down from Rs 5,680. Voluntary and golden handshake scheme for Pakistan Medical Commission employees was also approved, he added.

To a query, Chaudhry Fawad Hussain regarded National Assembly Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting Chairman Javed Latif as a ‘political clown’ and said his sole target was to seek attention of the establishment for making space in corridor of power. About frequent reshuffle in Punjab’s bureaucracy, he said such change at administrative level made no difference as the task of policy making was of the government.

Citing example of the United States, he said the top level bureaucracy was reshuffled there after every two months. Regarding non-cooperation of opposition in introducing comprehensive electoral reforms in the country, the minister said the opposition leadership had no knowledge about even ABC of the modern technology. Unfortunately, the opposition parties’ leadership had failed to abreast with rapidly changing world where the use of technology became imperative to meet day-to-day requirements.