ISLAMABAD: Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said the government is focusing on setting an agenda for talks with Baloch nationalists and insurgents.
Taking to Twitter Tuesday, the minister said India’s terrorist network in Balochistan had been dismantled to a large extent.
بلوچستان میں ہندوستان کا دہشت گردی کا نیٹ ورک کافی حد تک توڑ دیا ہے اب قوم پرستوں کے ساتھ بات چیت کا ایجنڈا طے کیا جائیگا،بلوچستان میں وفاقی حکومت 731 ارب کے 131 منصوبے مکمل کرے گی، صوبائ حکومت کا ترقیاتی پروگرام صرف اس سال 180 ارب کا ہے، بلوچستان @ImranKhanPTI کے دل کے قریب ہے https://t.co/6Vzc6W9fvX
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) July 6, 2021
“[The state] has dismantled India’s terrorist network in Balochistan to a great extent,” tweeted Chaudhry. “Now, we have to set an agenda for talks with Baloch nationalists.”
The minister spoke about development projects in Balochistan, saying that the federal government intended to complete 131 projects worth a whopping Rs731bn in the province.
Responding to the questions of media persons, Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said the agenda for holding negotiations with Baloch disgruntled elements were being devised in consultation with the relevant institutions.
He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan had again invited the opposition leadership to cooperate with the government in introducing election reforms to bring about transparency in the election process and to end the rigging charges once for all. Unfortunately, the opposition was so far not ready to join the government in its endeavors to ensure non-controversial elections, he added.
Regarding the Opposition’s apprehensions about the upcoming Azad Jammu and Kashmir elections, he said it was building a narrative of rigging in AJK elections without any cogent reason. He pointed out that only eight candidates were currently contesting AJK elections on PPP ticket and almost same was the position of PML-N, which had roughly 12 to 14 candidates and both parties were destined to lose the elections.
They were building rigging narrative as a preemptive measure to avoid embarrassment of losing the elections, he remarked. He said massive rigging was carried out in recent by-elections of Karachi and astonishingly, the winning PPP candidate was still surprised on his victory.
Responding to another query, he said Khursheed Ahmed Shah Committee had doled out hundreds of jobs to party workers without devising any mechanism, which destroyed government institutions.
He said Khursheed Shah committee appointed people on daily wages, regularized their services and afterwards awarded them pension, and added ultimately, the people will have to pay their salaries. The PPP has replicated the same devastating policy in Sindh – resultantly destroying the provincial institutions also, he said.
He said : “It is very easy for me to appoint a vast majority of youth of my constituency for becoming a formidable electable but this would destroy the government institutions.”
About possible influx of Afghan refugees in Pakistan, he said if situation in Afghanistan worsened, Pakistan will have to accommodate huge number of refugees.
Fawad said that refugee camps would be set up along with the border region but managing the divided families would be a challenge. From out of 2,700 km long border with Afghanistan, over 90 percent border had already been fenced and efforts were underway to start proper mechanism for entry and exit at border crossings, he added.
Responding to yet another question, he said a dossier on India’s terror campaign in Pakistan would be shared with the international institutions after completion.
Talking about reliance on electables by various political parties, he said a political party should stick to its ideology and strengthen it on principles to minimize the importance of individuals.
On what ideology Nawaz Sharif had joined hands with Asif Ali Zardari and same the case was with Bilawal Bhutto who joined Maulana Fazlur Rehman sans any similarities, he said.
