Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry on Sunday said Shehbaz Sharif is not a crisis leader and that leadership of the PML-N has been taken over by Maryam Nawaz.
“Shehbaz has become Fazal Elahi or Rafiq Tarar now as he is nothing more than a figurehead,” the minister told a press conference here. He said PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif has resigned from all the committees and just kept opposition leader slot in the National Assembly. “No one pays attention to Shehbaz Sharif in the PML-N,” he claimed.
Fawad said Shehbaz Sharif talked about ‘Charter of Economy’ on the floor of the National Assembly with Khawaja Asif next to him. When Maryam Nawaz rejected it, Khawaja Asif also changed his stance to support Maryam, he said. Maryam Nawaz has snatched the PML-N’s narrative from her uncle Shehbaz Sharif, he said, adding that Maryam Nawaz is the one who ousted her own father from power, made him go to jail and took over the party leadership.
The minister termed the opposition’s attitude as immature and challenged them to try to remove Senate chairman, whom he declared government’s candidate for the slot. “They should try to do so as to know how many their senators support them,” he said.
Fawad said due to strong political base and vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan, parliamentarians from PML-N and other opposition parties have started leaving their parties. “We did not try to convince them or plan any lobbing for this but they were well aware of the future political situation and the political career of PML-N,” he said. “PTI is not involved in any grouping of PML-N but actually their leadership is the reason behind all this. There is a fight of leadership in PML-N and Sharif Family,” he added.
The minister said effectual political footing, strong foreign policy and prudent economic plans of PTI government has put the country on right track of prosperity. He said the government has paid Rs 9.8 billion dollars in loans, which is more than the budget of Sindh province, while the government is still striving to overcome the economic situation. He said the government remained successful in passing the federal budget for the year 2019-20 and started working to meet the challenges in tax collection target which was fixed at Rs 5,600 billion.
The minister assured that the government will be able to improve the financial condition of the country within six months while the government also remained successful in achieving foreign policy goals. He termed Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s visit to Pakistan and Prime Minister Imran Khan’s upcoming visit to the US as a game changer. He said Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi during his visit to Brussels signed various agreements, out of which one whole chapter was on science and technology cooperation.
Fawad said after British Airways, other European Union airlines have started modifying their advisories regarding Pakistan. Prince William and Kate Middleton are also coming to Pakistan in August, he added.
Fawad said the government of Pakistan will establish a COMSATS university in Kandhar and Mineralogy Laboratory in Kabul, Afghanistan. “There are good news for Pakistan and bad news for the opposition. Now is the time for our country to rise as we will have a glory time that will make us remembering 1960s,” he maintained.
