Fawad gives talks offer another push

ISLAMABAD:

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry on Tuesday once again extended the government’s offer for talks on electoral and judicial reforms to the opposition parties amid growing calls for protest and claim that the ruling PTI’s days were numbered.

In a news briefing after the federal cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan, the government spokesperson said: “We want to engage the opposition on electoral and judicial reforms and on the process for appointment of NAB (National Accountability Bureau) chairman.”

On the same note, he said it “seems that the reforms are not the priority of opposition leaders” as they were only focused on hatching conspiracies against the government.

The minister laughed off PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz’s claim that the ruling PTI’s days were numbered, saying: “Even children did not take her remarks seriously.”

Fawad said that the opposition parties were striving from day one to oust the incumbent government but four years down the line this remained only their desire.

Flanked by Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar, the information minister accused the opposition parties of spreading misinformation on the bill granting autonomy to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), saying the facts were quite different from what was being propagated by the opposition.

SBP’s autonomy

On the SBP amendment bill which was recently passed from the National Assembly, the energy minister said that opposition tried its best to make it controversial but the fact is that the SBP was still not that autonomous as the central banks around the world were.

Arguing in favour of keeping the central bank autonomous, Azhar said that the global data shows that inflation goes down and economic growth continues where the central banks are given autonomy.

Azhar clarified that the federal government would remain the appointing authority for the posts of governor, deputy governors and board of directors, adding that the three- and five-year security of tenure was present in the law for the last five decades.

To keep the federal government as the appointing authority for the board of governors, he revealed, a concession was obtained after hard negotiations with the International Monetary Fund.

He said security of tenure was also available to the chiefs of several regulatory authorities, including Ogra and Nepra, whom one can’t remove later on. “The same formula has been applied on State Bank,” he said.

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Referring to a bill pertaining to SBP’s autonomy passed by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in 2015, Azhar said that the previous PML-N government surrendered federal the government’s power to the board of directors by making the law in 2015. “The role of State Bank of Pakistan has been strengthened further by substituting the federal government’s approval wherever acquired with the board’s approval,” he read the State of Object from the PML-N’s law.

On the contrary, he said, the ruling PTI has said that the federal government would appoint all the board members.

“Now, you decide which party tried to undermine the autonomy and which tried to protect it,” Azhar said.

Accusing the PML-N of misguiding people on different issues, he said that the SBP and all its assets would remain under federal government’s ownership.

The information minister incorporated that the bill regarding SBP’s autonomy would soon be tabled in the Senate, which would hopefully adopt it.

On shortage of gas supply to domestic consumers in Karachi, Azhar admitted that Sindh’s capital was facing a shortfall of gas this winter, saying that under the cabinet-approved priority order, gas was previously diverted to domestic consumers from roughly 1,800 non-export general industry in Karachi for a month or so every winter.

This time around, he said, the industry got a stay order from the Sindh High Court and then the stay orders were continuously obtained to stop the government from diverting 100 mmcft of gas to domestic consumers.

Every year, he said, the priority order is followed where domestic consumers are supplied gas first followed by the export sector and then the general industry, adding that it couldn’t happen this year. Revealing that the case was fixed before the SHC on January 19, he hoped that the Sui Southern Gas Pipeline Company would be able to convince the court through its arguments to vacate the stay earlier granted.

Covid-19

Following Azhar, Fawad maintained that the cabinet was briefed on the latest situation of the new variant of Covid-19, saying the number of cases per day has reached 5,000, which was an increase of 2.5 per cent. He said getting vaccine dozes was turning out to be effective against Omicron.

Fawad lamented that Sindh was lagging behind than other provinces when it came to vaccination, adding that the most number of cases was being witnessed in Karachi, especially, in the school-going children.

Read More: Pakistan’s daily Covid-19 cases cross 5,000 for first time in six months

Referring to the import of vaccines worth $2 billion, Fawad said that their import was one of the biggest factors in the Current Account Deficit.

Among other things, he said, the cabinet asked the National Assembly and Senate secretariats to avoid nominating members for various parliamentary committees who had direct conflict of interest. The request came after it was noticed that contractors and builders were made members of the committees that served their interest.

Other decisions

Fawad said that the Ministry of Industries and Production briefed the cabinet about the urea production and its availability in the country. “There is record production of the urea in Pakistan in current year and urea is available in most parts of the country.”

The minister said the cabinet also discussed in detail the power transmission system, and Azhar informed the cabinet about the ongoing steps to control line losses. It was told that it would be the first year in which circular debt would start coming down substantively.

During the discussion on protection of green covers of big cities, it was informed that before 2018, a marked reduction in the number of green areas and trees was noticed.

The measures taken by the government after 2018 had not only increased the number of trees in Islamabad but also reclaimed its green cover, he said, adding that steps were also taken to retrieve state land from the mafia.

“The prime minister directed that the master plan of all major cities should be finalised as soon as possible with focus on increasing the number of green areas and trees in urban areas.”

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The cabinet gave extension to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) 2005 Convention on protecting and promoting cultural diversity.

He said the approval for Pakistan Railways Freight Transportation Company’s board of directors was also given by the forum. It included Abdar Khan, Naveed Arshad, Tayyba Rashid, Farrukh Shaukat Ansari and Prof Dr Fakhra Khan.

Likewise, the cabinet okayed reconstitution of the board of directors of Railway Construction Pakistan Limited, including Azam Adil Sheikh, Shahid Aziz, Fareeduddin Ahmed and others. He said the annual report of Nepra was also presented to the cabinet. It was the first time in the last 24 years that the report was presented on time.