The government has not ruled out protests in case Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf is disqualified in National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) implementation case. In reply to a question during a briefing after the Cabinet meeting, Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said that the party would take a decision to launch a Lahore-Karachi train march if the apex court decided to disqualify the Prime Minister.
The Minister said that a symbolic train march was also held from Lahore to Multan when former Prime Minister was removed by the Supreme Court in contempt of court case. The Prime Minister in his opening speech to the Cabinet, reportedly called for preparing for elections, saying that PPP believed in free and fair elections. Kaira said that no proposal to extend the tenures of assemblies had been discussed at any forum since there was no natural calamity and there existed no state of war.
He said that the government would have to declare its failure if elections were postponed. The Minister said that the polls would be held on time and the PPP had never tried to escape from the election process. Kaira said that the government was considering passing a law, making public assets of all people who drew salaries from the national exchequer, including politicians and bureaucrats.
He said that the Secretary Establishment and Cabinet Division had been directed to hold meeting and come up with suggestions for full compliance with declaration of assets decision. Kaira said that the Cabinet was informed 30,000 daily wagers and work-charge employees had been regularised. He said that the Cabinet Davison had informed that the process of regularisation was on-going. The Minister said that services of contract and daily wage employees appointed in the past had also been regularised.
Kaira said the Sub-Committee of the Cabinet on Balochistan also presented its preliminary report after holding talks with various stakeholders in Quetta, Karachi and Islamabad and sought some more time to finalise its recommendations which would be ready before the next Cabinet meeting.
In reply to a question about withdrawing cases against disgruntled Baloch leaders, he said that the Ministry of Interior would be in a better position to comment, as the committee mandate is to finalise and submit recommendations to the cabinet for approval. The Minister also criticised the language used by Awami Muslim League (AML) Chief Sheikh Rashid Ahmed during a public gathering, saying that he should not have "crossed limits".