Prime Minister Imran Khan, while referring to Thursday’s reshuffle, on Friday hinted at more changes in the federal cabinet, besides directing the chief ministers of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces to put their respective teams under the scanner.
“A good captain keeps a constant eye on his team. A good captain has to win the match. Sometimes, he has to change the batting order … sometimes he has to replace a player with a new one. The captain has the only target of making the team win,” he said while addressing a public gathering here at the headquarters of the erstwhile Orakzai Agency.
The prime minister, who arrived here from Peshawar where he visited Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital, was accompanied by KP Chief Minister Mehmood Khan, Governor Shah Farman, parliamentarians and party leaders.
He said being the prime minister, he has the only objective of uplifting his nation as he is answerable to Allah Almighty. “For this, I have changed the batting order in my team and made a couple of changes too. I will do it in future as well. I want to tell all the ministers that anyone being of no use for my country will be replaced with the one who is beneficial,” he said, and asked KP chief minister to keep an eye on his team. “The rulers will be held accountable by Allah Almighty for the sufferings of the poor people for not affording their children’s education, medical treatment in government hospitals and sudden increase in prices of the medicine,” he said. “Therefore we should always be ready to replace or change the batting order of a player who is not giving a good performance,” he added.
Imran Khan said during the last decade, the previous governments increased the debt burden from Rs 6,000 billion in 2008 to Rs 30,000 in 2018. He said the country’s economic outlook would have been far better had Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari not given an NRO, closing their cases of money laundering. He said Bilawal Bhutto, Asif Zardari and Maulana Fazlur Rehman are threatening to dislodge the government to conceal their own corruption,” he said. “The fear of jail is haunting them and factually it is not the democracy but their looted money under threat,” he added.
Referring to the destruction caused by the war against terrorism and deprivation faced by the people of the tribal region, the prime minister said he is the only politician who has been opposing military operation in the region on the behest of US. He said unfortunately the then ruler was naïve to the nature, traditions and history of the tribal people. “What actually happened to the tribal area (during war against terrorism) is not fully known to those living outside the region,” he said, adding that the ruler at that time, not the Pakistan Army, was responsible for military operation in the tribal areas making the people suffer.
Imran Khan said no Pakistani prime minister ever visited the tribal areas so frequently like him as he knows the area better than all. Mentioning losses to the houses, cattle and businesses faced by the people in Orakzai area, the prime minister said the government will not ignore their sacrifices and compensate them.
He said though the demands by the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) for protection of Pashtun rights are genuine, the slogans they had been raising against the army are of no use. “Instead of fueling the flame, it is time to mull over as how to move forward and uplift the people by providing them education, health and employment opportunities,” he said. “PTM has been repeating the same demands which he had made in the past 15 years. But, how turning people who have been through pain and sufferings against their own army and raising slogans like this benefit Pakistan and the tribal areas?” he asked.
Imran Khan said the government will promote tourism to cash in on the potential of the Orakzai area and directed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister to facilitate tourism to open up business and job opportunities for the youth. He said government’s main focus and effort will be to promote education and bring foreign investment to explore gas, copper and other mineral resources in the area. He said the government has decided to provide Insaf Sehat Card to every family in tribal region to provide health insurance cover of Rs 720,000. He said for the first time, his government will be consulting the associations of seminaries to introduce contemporary education like science and engineering there to provide equal opportunities to 2.6 million students to become doctors, judges or generals.
