ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage Senator Pervaiz Rashid Tuesday said the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) issue was being played up by PTI for political gains and it would not benefit the airline employees.
"The protest is not in favour of PIA, rather it is part of the political game being played to destabilize the country, ruin national economy, halt the development process and keep the people in backwardness," he said while addressing a press conference flanked by Chairman Privatization Commission Muhammad Zubair and MNA Daniyal Aziz.
Pervaiz Rashid said that political elements were leading the PIA's ongoing protest, while true representatives of PIA workers and pilots association had openly dissociated themselves from the agitation.
The minister criticized Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan for announcing nationwide protest from Saturday (Feb 6), at the times when international community was praising Pakistan's economic progress.
He said that PTI wanted to halt the economic progress of the country, that was why, it announced a nationwide protest.
The minister said that Imran Khan's recent protest call would fail, just like his previous sit-in at D-Chowk in Islamabad. The PTI chairman did not learn a lesson from the past and he was going to start the 'Container-2' episode.
He said that whenever the government initiated development and prosperity projects, it was PTI which started agitation with the purpose to harm the welfare agenda.
Pervaiz Rashid said Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had authenticated that papers submitted by the PTI member to ECP were forged, adding that Imran Khan after getting the 'certificate' from the court had gone an extra mile to tell a lie.
He said the PTI chairman in its recent press conference presented wrong figures that inflation in Pakistan was the highest in the world.
Contrary to this, the minister said, the government passed on maximum benefits of the falling petroleum prices in international market to the people.
He said that Pakistan had the lowest prices of petroleum products as compared to other countries in South Asian region including India, Bangladesh and Nepal.
He said at present the petrol price in Pakistan was Rs 71 while in India it was Rs 97 per liter, Nepal Rs 95, Sri Lanka Rs 93 and Bangladesh Rs 125.
He said the diesel price was reduced by 30 percent in the recent past in Pakistan, whereas India just cut it by only three paisas per litre. Even the Prime Minister had rejected summaries of Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) during the last three months, regarding increase in prices of petroleum products as he did not want to burden people, he added.
He said that privatization of government departments incurring losses, including PIA, was even mentioned in the manifesto of PTI.
The minister said Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had also invoked the Essential Services Act for PIA twice, first by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and then in 2010 by the then President Asif Ali Zardari.
The minister criticized those who were raising questions about invoking of the act, who themselves used the same in the past and now they were misleading the innocent PIA workers for their political agenda.
The minister said that 62 percent of the tax being collected on petroleum products was distributed among provinces and if Imran Khan wanted to give relief in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he was free to pass on the relief to consumers in any form.
Pervaiz Rashid said that Imran Khan should reduce fares of public transport in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to facilitate commuters after reduction in petroleum prices.
He said that the federal government had given maximum relief to public by reducing petroleum products due to which prices of essential food items also fell.
He said that inflation was at the lowest figure in the history of the country, adding foreign exchange reserves were at the highest level.
He said that Imran Khan was habitual to criticize mega- projects like Metro Bus project, Orange Train Line but ironically he himself was boosting fly-over project in Peshawar, which showed his double-standard.
Pervaiz Rashid said that Punjab government had been allocating maximum budget on welfare projects that including more facilities in educational and health sectors by building schools and hospitals in the far flung areas of the province.
Answering a question, he said that some political parties were using and provoking PIA workers to continue their agitation to gain political advantage from the PIA issue.
Besides, he said, some political elements were mentioning involvement of government figures in killing of two PIA employees for personal gains and make it a political issue.
He expressed grief and sorrow over the killing of innocent workers in the protests, saying "We equally share grief of the bereaved families."
The minister said that it was responsibility of the provincial government to investigate the matter.
He said that the government took every step to take PIA workers into confidence and even halted the process of finding a strategic partner for six months.
Chairman Privatization Commission Muhammad Zubair said that privatization was also part of PTI manifesto, but now they were negating their own policy just for political point-scoring.
MNA Daniyal Aziz said that Imran Khan was hoodwinking the public with his agitation call given for February 6, just to hide his failures in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
He said that the PTI's top leadership was also perturbed over foreign funding issue which was under trial in the Islamabad High Court.
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