Federal Minister for Science and Technology Chaudhry Fawad Hussain on Tuesday termed the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) a group of ‘political orphans’.
“It is ironic that Mahmood Achakzai, Aftab Sherpao and those whose parties do not have even members in the National Assembly or provincial legislatures and any stake or role in the system, are demanding resignations from assemblies,” the minister said while addressing a press briefing after a meeting of the federal cabinet. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Pakistan People’s Party, he added, being the bigger parties in the PDM would hopefully not favour any such rash demand as they know the consequences. “If they agree to do so, then it will be important to see how many legislators will follow their decision,” he added.
About the demand for resignations of chief election commissioner and ECP members, the minister said Article 218 (3) of the constitution clearly states that the ECP is responsible to conduct free, fair and transparent elections with no corrupt practices. All the political parties have the consensus that the ECP has failed to fulfil its responsibilities in this regard, he added.
He said the Supreme Court had advised the ECP to use technology for ensuring transparent elections, with no corrupt practices, but it failed to do so. Referring to the videos of horse-trading and votes buying which surfaced before the Senate election, Fawad said even a common man knows very well whether the Senate elections were transparent or not.
Being a political party, the PTI, he said, has only conveyed the people’s demand to the ECP high-ups to tender resignations and give an opportunity to the parliament to form a new commission. “The current ECP is not serving the purpose for which it was created,” he said, adding that the ECP can only be credible if all the political parties have faith in it. “A disputed ECP cannot take the matters forward,” he said, and warned the CEC and ECP members of using all legal options, including the contempt of court, if they did not resign from their posts.
Briefing about the cabinet decisions, the minister said forensic audit of 10 loss making entities would be held under the directives of federal cabinet. He said Pakistan Railway, Sui Southern Gas Pipeline Company and Pakistan International Airlines are among the enterprises which are running in loss, adding that the audit will be completed by June 30 this year. He said 51 out of 85 loss-making state-owned enterprises have become profitable due to prudent policies of the government.
The cabinet also gave approval to end the ban on issuance of prohibited and non-prohibited bore licenses of arms by approving the comprehensive license policy. The cabinet gave approval to the proposal of issuing smart cards to registered Afghan refugees and this decision was part of the prime minister’s policy of providing relief to the poor people.
