Fawad says Bilawal relying on JUI-F chief for the survival of his politics

DNA

MANDI BAHAUDDIN: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain Sunday came hard on the opposition for another attempt to oust the democratically elected government, saying, “It has no guts and prowess to bring a no-trust motion.”

The opposition, he added, had made such an abortive bid earlier and its current endeavour would also meet the same fate.

“The no trust move can succeed only when the opposition parties are standing on their own feet, but not through beseeching, entreating or hatching conspiracies,” the minister said in a media talk here.

Fawad said the very next day of their announcement, he had challenged the opposition to table the no-confidence motion. However, they had not yet given any date for the purpose as they had preempted their defeat.

Pakistan, he said, could not be handed over to Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who did not have any political prowess. The people could not be deceived any more as they had tried them earlier.

The Pakistan Peoples Party, the minister said, had never done ‘religious politics’, but its Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari now stood by Maulana Fazlur Rehman who, he believed, could bring out students of seminaries for the public meetings and long marches.

Bilawal knew that his party was no more a crowd puller and, therefore, he was relying on the Jamiat Ulema-e Islam-Fazl chief for the survival of his politics, he added.

The minister held Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif responsible for relegating their once mainstream political parties to regional ones, and said now their last hope was Maulana Fazl, who, ironically, failed to blackmail the government in the past by bringing the seminary students to Islamabad.

“This time it will not be different and we will get rid of their blackmailing once for and all,” he said in an apparent reference to Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who used the seminary students for showing his political prowess.

The minister sarcastically remarked on the planned long march of Maluana Fazl led multi-party alliance of the Pakistan Democratic Movement, saying the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf could rent them out the container used by the party during their struggle against the corrupt rulers.

As regards the ongoing accountability drive, he said Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Safdar had been convicted for their corruption, while Shehbaz Sharif and Hamza Shehbaz would be indicted in the money laundering case soon.

He once again reiterated the demand for live broadcast of the court proceedings of Shehbaz Sharif’s cases as it would help the media and the public to analyze the money laundering evidence against the PML-N president.

The minister said an amount of Rs 4 billion had poured into the account of Maqsood, a peon who drawing the monthly salary of Rs 25,000 from Shehbaz Sharif’s mill.

Highlighting the government’s mega initiatives for the public socio-economic welfare, Fawad said the people in different provinces were availing free medical treatment of up to Rs 1 million under the Sehat Sahulat Programme of the PTI government.

When PTI came into the power, he said, the country’s economy was at the verge of default due to poor economic policies of “Ishaq Dar and company”. Prime Minister Imran Khan implemented prudent policies to stabilize the economy.