Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain Tuesday said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government during its first nine working days had taken unprecedented initiatives to put the country on the path to progress and prosperity.
Since its inception, he said, the government had started adopting austerity measures. Prime Minister Imran Khan preferred to reside in a three-bedroom house instead of the Prime Minister House, he said talking to a private channel.
The minister said a country-wide tree plantation drive was launched to plant 10 billion saplings in five years. Similarly, Economic Advisory Council had also been constituted.
The government took effective steps and made serious efforts that led to the cancellation of blasphemous caricatures competition in the Netherlands, he added.
The minister said the ruling PTI leadership was well aware of the national interests. The Pakistan People’s Party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and other opposition parties should play a constructive role on issues of national importance and thus contribute towards the country’s development, he added.
There should be legislation for public welfare with consensus, the minister stressed.
Fawad said the PTI government would strengthen all the state institutions. Some of institutions, which were established in the past, were not functioning properly or effectively, such as the Press Council of Pakistan and the Pakistan Electronic Media and Regulatory Authority (PEMRA).
He said transparency should be brought in the distribution of official advertisements. The last government had spent some Rs 55 billion on advertisements, which the present one could not afford, he added.
Replying to a question about the resignation of Babar Awan as Advisor to the Prime Minister, he said he (Babar) himself quit the post after a reference was filed against him by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). The PTI was a party whose leaders took such steps on moral grounds otherwise there was no such precedent in other parties, whose leaders did not step down even after being convicted by courts, he added.
He said the government would take all the stakeholders on board on all national issues. Input from the army would be taken over foreign policy while judiciary’s view point would also be sought for judicial reforms, he added.
The minister said Prime Minister Imran Khan had been consulting experts on every issue and thus resolved many problems being faced by the country in a short span of time.