ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday spoke to the masses via telephone and answered different questions.
The calls were broadcast live on television and were moderated by Senator Faisal Javed Khan.
PM asks the people to be patient for the problems of the country to be solved
PM in the communication:
- Sheds light on various topics, including problems of GB, Balochistan, concept of welfare state, Opposition, inflation, and Senate elections, etc.
- Says government is addressing many problems but people have to be patient
Pakistani citizens called the prime minister and asked questions related to different issues, including the coronavirus vaccine, issues of Balochistan and Gilgit Baltistan, inflation, the Opposition, and the concept of Riyasat-e-Madina, among others.
- On the situation of covid-19’s vaccination, PM said,
“According to a criterion that the government has set for the vaccination drive, (after frontline workers) we will inoculate people above the age of 60 who might have underlying health conditions.”
- On the issues of Gilgit, PM said,
“We know that Gilgit Baltistan is facing electricity problems and we will soon build grid stations there,” the PM said.
- Speaking about Balochistan, the PM said that the province is very large with a comparatively small population which makes it difficult to work on its development.
“The political set up of Balochistan which has been historically followed damaged the province,” the PM said. “It is crucial to introduce a local bodies system there if we want to address their problems.”
“We will work on the development of Balochistan but people should be patient,” the premier stressed.
- Speaking about the developmental projects that the PTI government has initiated in the country, the PM said that no other country in the world provides housing facilities to the masses. Citing the example of the United Kingdom, he said that 80 percent of the masses take loans from banks in order to construct houses.
As against that, the PM claimed, only 0.2 percent of Pakistanis seek housing loans from banks.
“The government will provide a subsidy of Rs300,000 per yard for each house under the housing scheme,” the PM said.
-
The caller said that people have started questioning the PM’s promise of turning Pakistan into a welfare state. In response, the PM said that he believes in the concept of Riyasat-e-Madina because it was based on modern-day principles of welfare.
“Every nation that followed the golden principles of Riyasat-e-Madina has succeeded,” the PM maintained, adding that whenever he advocated the concept of a welfare state people discouraged him but he did not back down.
“I have envisaged turning Pakistan into Riyasat-e-Madina and I will do so, there is no way to deflect from this goal,” he said. “Pakistan will also turn into a great nation.”
- Answering another question, the prime minister said that the country will only progress towards prosperity when rule of law will be strengthened.
“Giving the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) to the powerful and throwing the poor in jails will only destroy the country,” the PM said.
- Speaking about the Opposition,
PM Imran Khan said that “the biggest looters of the country came together and formed a union and these looters have been trying to pressurize the government for the past two years.”
-
He added that former president General Pervez Musharraf gave the NRO to the biggest looters during his time.
“The corrupt rulers of the country stole people’s money and laundered it abroad,” he said, adding that by bringing up the foreign funding case against the ruling PTI, the Opposition has put itself in a troublesome situation.
“We have provided names of 40,000 donors to the Election Commission of Pakistan in relation to the foreign funding case but the Opposition parties cannot even name one hundred donors.”
- Giving the example of Malaysia, PM said,
“The country has been pushed into crises during the decade-long rule of the PML-N and PPP combined,” the PM said, adding that people expected the PTI government to come into power and change everything overnight which is only possible in fairytales. “It takes time to fix the problems of the country,” he stressed.
- Prime Minister also talked about inflation and said that he is fully aware of the masses’ plight.
“The country has been plunged into poverty because of corrupt presidents and prime ministers in the past,” he said. “(Owing to flawed policies of the previous governments) the Pakistani rupee severely depreciated which led to inflation in the country.”
-
The PM added that when he formed a government, Pakistan was going through the darkest economic period in history.
“We are trying to improve the country’s economy but people have to be patient,” he said.
- Responding to a question about the Senate elections,
the PM said that “MNAs sell their votes in the Senate elections, and many people become senators by giving bribe. “
“Those who became senators by bribing others come to power to make money,” he said. “The PPP and PML-N said in the Charter of Democracy that there should be an open ballot system in the elections,” he said.
“We will be introducing an amendment in the Senate elections this week for an open ballot system of voting,” the PM said. “The nation will see who supports the open ballot system and who opposes it.”
-
Answering a question about the plight of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), the PM said that PIA is indebted with a loan of Rs400 billion because of which it also has to pay interest.
“We do not have the resources to purchase more aircraft for the national carrier,” Imran Khan said, adding that the government is currently restricting the PIA as more people have been recruited by it than needed.
The PM also said that his government is trying it best to pay off the debts incurred by the PIA, adding that the pandemic severely affected the airline industry because of which PIA faced considerable losses.
