ISLAMABAD: The Interior Minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, on Thursday said that the leadership of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), an alliance of 11 opposition parties, would not resign from the National and provincial Assemblies before the Senate elections.
Talking to media persons at the Immigrating and Passport Directorate, he said that the opposition would participate in the Senate elections.
About Maulana Fazlur Rehman, president PDM and chief of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI), he said that Rehman was the real cause of chaos in the country.
Rehman wanted to create panic by bringing students of seminaries to Islamabad, he said.
He further said that Rehman had put the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) ahead but the Pakistan People Party (PPP) was playing in a better position.
He also asked Fazlur Rehman to have mercy on democracy in the country.
To a question about reports that the government was withdrawing security from Rehman, he said that the government was not withdrawing security from the JUI chief.
Maulana was on top of the list of 20 persons facing serious security threat.
Regarding Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), he said that the MQM-P was a coalition partner of the government and it would address their reservation.
He said that he would visit Karachi for a meeting with the MQM-P leadership.
On another question about former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s passport, he said that he was unaware about it.
He said that SMS service had being launched to inform the public in advance regarding expiry of their passports.
E-passport service will be launched from April 28 next year, he said, adding that now passport with validity of 10 years would be issued in Rs 3,000.
Rashid said that the process of visa issuance to the Chinese nationals working on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects would be made further easier.
He said that he had issued directives to curtail the number of people on the exit control list (ECL) and the blacklist.
The names of over 100,000 were currently on the ECL, he said.
The minister said that names of only those elements involved in criminal and anti-state activities be kept in the list.
He said that he had given ultimatum of one week to the petrol station involved in selling smuggled petrol and diesel.
He said if they did not stop this practice, the ministry would take action against them.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020