No corrupt element part of current govt: Fawad

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said on Thursday that the masses have full confidence in the prime minister’s leadership that he would not do anything for personal gains. In a tweet, he said whether it was a transparency survey or some other survey, after a long time, the people have the trust that no corrupt element was part of the present government. He said 89 per cent of people support the government measures on coronavirus and this was a great achievement. Separately, Fawad Chaudhry said Sindh was being ruled by a government that had nothing to do with welfare of the people. Addressing a press conference in Islamabad along with Minister for National Food Security and Research Syed Fakhar Imam, he said the policies of Sindh government were badly hurting the people. The minister said flour and sugar prices were the highest in Sindh compared with the rest of the country and the people of Sindh were deprived of health card and ration program due to the anti-people policies of the PPP government. He said the public representatives of Sindh, including MNAs and MPAs, should ask their chief minister for which reason he was taking revenge from the people of the province. “Flour is being sold at Rs1,100 per 20 kg bag in the whole country except Sindh, as the people of Karachi and Sindh have been forced to purchase it at Rs1,460 per bag. The price of sugar across the country is Rs90 per kg, but in Sindh it is being sold between Rs97 and Rs100”, he added. Fawad said the Transparency International’s post-Covid-19 survey was encouraging because for the first time, there was no evidence of corruption committed by the political government. Fawad said the people of Pakistan had a government after a long time which was not accused of any type of corruption. He said even the opponents of the prime minister believed in his uprightness. “Trust in the political government is being restored today, 89 percent people have expressed confidence in the performance and initiatives of the government after outbreak of the coronavirus which is big achievement”, Fawad said. He said there were very few examples in the world that a country’s economy was developing at 5 percent per year after the pandemic. “Our economic growth figures are also being acknowledged by the IMF, and there is likelihood that Pakistan will go beyond 5 percent growth rate,” he said. The agriculture sector due to the policies of the government earned about Rs400 billion additional amount last year, he said, adding that the farmers earned Rs118 billion in wheat, Rs138 billion in cotton, Rs46 billion in rice and Rs3 billion in maize and Rs96 billion in sugarcane. The minister said the demands of tractors, vehicles, agricultural equipment and urea fertilizer increased due to surplus income in agriculture sector. The price of urea fertilizer in Pakistan was Rs1,700, whereas its price in the international market had crossed Rs10,000 mark, he said. The minister said a truck loaded with urea fertiliser was sent abroad and it would earn Rs8 million. Fawad said Prime Minister Imran Khan yesterday announced the largest social protection programme in Pakistan’s history to control impact of inflation on the poor segments of the society. He said under the social protection program people earning less than Rs50,000 would get 30 percent discount on flour, pulses and ghee purchase. The minister said the beneficiaries of this programme would get flour at a lower price than the price of 2018. There was no precedent in the world for such a program, people in the UK had to pay a premium for the facility of treatment in the National Health Services, he said. He said the Computerized National Identity Card will be used along with health card for treatment in any government hospital free of cost. The minister said Prime Minister Imran Khan’s vision was to provide direct assistance to the poor, instead of giving subsidies on the commodities which were availed by all. About the opposition, he said it was fragmented and had no agenda to serve the masses. He said the opposition was like a house of cards and if it did not disintegrate by March 23, only then it might hold a long march.