Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain on Friday said Prime Minister Imran Khan was the only leader who had a vote bank in the entire country.
Chaudhry Fawad said in the next general elections, real competition in Punjab would be between Pakistan Tehrek-e-Insaaf (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), while in Sindh between the Pakistan People’s Party and PTI, the rest would come only as ‘guest actors’, as they had no support, he said at twitter space while talking to twitter users.
He said Imran Khan had a vote bank in Gwadar, Khyber, Karachi, Sukkur, Multan and all parts of the country.
The minister said PTI was the only party which could field candidates in the whole country as “elections are to be held for more than 1100 constituencies, no one except PTI has the status and stature to field so many candidates”. PTI would face competition from different parties in different parts of the country, he added.
The minister said after the Panama leaks case, there was a big change in the country’s politics and PTI exposed the PML-N.
“Whenever there is (proceeding) of a case against Nawaz Sharif or Maryam Nawaz, an audio or video tape is leaked, aimed at putting pressure on the courts,” Chaudhry Fawad remarked.
Maryam Nawaz’s last hearing was adjourned for the 17th time. Similarly, the cases of Nawaz Sharif and Zardari could not be decided because they were using delaying tactics. Imran Khan, he said, challenged the monopoly of PML-N and PPP which ruled for 30 years, adding, both Maryam Nawaz and Nawaz Sharif were convicted.
The minister said action should be taken on fake news for which the government had prepared a bill which was delayed due to media protests. He said the fake news issue would only be resolved after proper legislation. Pakistan, he said, was trying to avert any humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and if the situation worsened it would have impact on it. “With 4 million Afghans already here, our economy can no longer bear the burden,” Fawad Hussain said, adding, the situation in Afghanistan would be discussed in the OIC conference. To a question, he said NADRA was preparing an app for verification of Overseas Pakistanis’ votes, adding, through email the app would be sent to the consumer and few questions would be asked to get their feedback. The minister informed that preparation of the app would be accomplished within three months. To a question about the digitalization process in the Ministry of Information, the minister said PTV had begun the process of digitizing its sports channel ‘PTV Sports’ and the process would be completed before the start of next Pakistan Super League.
Fawad said the official news agency Associated Press of Pakistan had been converted to a digital news agency on the pattern of Reuters and Agency France Press, adding, reforms process in the entire ministry was going on. He said few media groups were against media regulations, though they paid fines to media groups in London, but when the government of Pakistan wanted to introduce fines and regulations they started protesting. “The country cannot move forward without regulations”, he said. He said ‘The New York Times’ had reopened its office in Islamabad, and office of Associated Press was in the federal capital whereas DW agreed to reopen its office. Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said when the issue of Facebook office in Pakistan was being discussed a case was registered against them.
There was a lot of business in Pakistan for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube but there was no check on them, he added. In 2018, he had written a letter to Federal Board of Revenue, saying, digital advertising was growing significantly, the minister said. To a question, he said there were so many fluctuations in cryptocurrency around the world, while transactions could not be done on the basis of trust alone, there was no guarantee of cryptocurrency and in the future the world would move towards digital currency.
Responding to a question, he said rating agencies gave ratings to various television channels, but now the government was digitalizing cable networks which would also help track the rating of the channels.
To a question from a user from Balochistan, he said tax was collected from all over the country and transferred to the provinces according to a formula, said Chaudhry Fawad Hussain adding, the federal government gave Rs 700 billion to Balochistan in addition to its share, while it had received Rs 600 billion from its share.
Fawad said the money was given for sports, schools and health facilities in Balochistan. He said after the 18th amendment, the federation’s involvement in provincial affairs had reduced. He said which type of plays should be produced was a big issue as it depended on each family what kind of content they wanted to see. The minister said families had to decide for themselves what type of content they want to see.
The minister said the Prime Minister had made it clear that the local body elections would be direct and gave a powerful model in this regard, and for the first time under this system political parties would be able to come to the grassroots level. Political parties would give tickets to 13 candidates in village councils and neighborhood councils.
He opined that by holding local body elections at tehsil level, the system would have become subordinate to bureaucracy. To a question about relations with India, he said the whole region was affected by Modi’s Hindutva ideology as he was promoting extremism. About Khanewal by-elections he said, Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan got less votes as the people of Pakistan always rejected hard-line parties. He said the media highlighted negative things as there was a perception that nobody wanted to watch positive developments. The minister said people like Justice (R) Wajihuddin come on news channels for ‘drama’, and scope for such people was available. The economies of the whole world were under pressure, he said adding, Pakistan was also a part of the globe. He said during their ten years rule Nawaz Sharif and Zardari had created financial difficulties for the nation. The minister said the whole world applauded the way Pakistan handled coronavirus and despite the pandemic Pakistan’s economy was growing at five per cent .
To a question, he said additional Rs 400 billion had gone to the agricultural economy this year, and a total of Rs 1100 billion had been transferred to the agricultural sector, and five bumper crops had been harvested.
He said due to inflation, there were problems for the salaried class in cities but the situation was better for farmers, laborers and other sectors. He said in Pakistan 20 million people had mobile phones, and the number of smartphones was increasing rapidly as all formal media programs were made by watching social media.
