Certain powers cannot digest ties with China, says information minister

Fawad says smuggled mobile phones to be blocked after Dec 31

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Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry said on Friday the opening of Kartarpur border was a peace initiative of Pakistan as it wanted normalisation of relations with India to resolve economic problems and tackle poverty.

Speaking at a news conference after a meeting of the federal cabinet, the minister said that the cabinet paid tribute to the martyrs of Karachi and Orakzai terror attacks. He said the certain powers could not digest the Pakistan’s relations with China.

Responding to a question about the attack on the Chinese consulate in Karachi, the minister said that everybody knew who

He said the opposition was now saying that conditions in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) were deplorable and that its performance was not up to the mark, while the laws were not good.

“People like Saifur Rehman and Qamaruz Zaman Chaudhry were made NAB chairmen and the PML-N (Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz) badly treated its political opponents,” he added.



He stressed that NAB was investigating on merit and its chairman was a humane person, adding that NAB was not under the government.

The minister said according to law in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the speaker had the authority to appoint chairman of the provincial Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

In parliament, it was a tradition to appoint PAC chairman from the opposition so that it could audit projects of the government.

“Here the issue is that we will audit the projects of Nawaz Sharif and our accounts can be audited by the opposition. No deal more fair than that can be offered.”

The minister announced that the cabinet approved the appointment of Arif Usmani as the new president of the National Bank, while Abdul Jabbar Shaheen had been appointed in charge of the Export Processing Zone Authority.

The minister said the decisions of Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) were approved by the cabinet, including permission for export of sugar and import of urea.

He said mobile phones worth Rs82 million come through formal channels and taxes were paid but phones worth Rs2.5 billion come through informal channels every year.

The minister said that the sale of second-hand phones was banned but these phones were available in the markets.

So the cabinet had decided to install a new Device Identification Registration and Blocking System (DIRBS) to block the smuggled phones after December 31. “The restriction will not be imposed on the phones already in use,” he added.

The minister said the cabinet held the view that manufacturing of the mobile phones at local level should be encouraged and after that import of second-hand phones could be banned. It was decided to regulate the import of mobile phones.