Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry said on Tuesday that if the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) is the replacement of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), then people need to rethink, stressing that progress of Fazal Ur Rehman's party was the sign of a "regressive society."
“If people like these get a mandate, then there is something troubling with our society,” he said while addressing a press conference in Islamabad after the cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan.
“It’s unfortunate if people like Fazal Ur Rehman come to power,” he lamented.
Talking about the JUI-F performance in the local government elections, the minister said that it was unfortunate that “due to our mistakes a political party is being noticed in KPK which should have ended a long time ago.”
PTI govt to make $55bn debt payment during its tenure: Fawad Chaudhry
Fawad urged PTI’s leaders and workers to set aside their personal differences and unite under PM Imran's leadership.
He said that PTI's poor performance in the KPK's local government elections was due to “management issues" as in many places the ruling party faced its workers due to the wrong distribution of tickets.
“When three, four people of the same party start contesting election from one constituency, you will lose the election,” he said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Prime Minister Imran Khan admitted that PTI made mistakes in the first phase of the KPK local government elections, saying that he will personally be overseeing the second phase of the polls.
In a tweet, the PM said that due to the wrong selection of candidates, PTI paid the price.
"From now on I will personally be overseeing PTI's LG election strategy in 2nd phase of KP LG elections & LG elections across Pak. InshaAllah PTI will come out stronger," he tweeted.
PTI lost ground to JUI-F in Sunday's election, losing many coveted posts, including the seat of Peshawar mayor.
As per unofficial results, opposition parties have a combined lead over the ruling PTI in the first local government elections held in KPK since the merger of tribal districts.
Meanwhile, Fawad reiterated that PTI is the only national party of Pakistan. “If there is no PTI in Pakistan, there won’t be any national party in Pakistan,” he stressed.
Major upset for PTI in Peshawar as JUI-F wins mayor seat
The minister said that the cabinet decided that Ministers for Science and Technology and Information Technology would meet the Chief Election Commissioner on Wednesday (tomorrow) to assure all-out assistance from the government in holding Islamabad local government elections through EVMs.
He said that the ECP should issue tenders for the purchase of EVMs so that the next general elections could be conducted through the EVMs.
Talking about Pakistan’s economy, he said that Pakistan’s financial condition is such that we need loans to repay loans taken by previous governments.
Fawad had earlier tweeted that the incumbent Pakistan PTI government will pay $55 billion in foreign debt payments during its five-year tenure that ends in 2023.
The minister drew a comparison with $27 billion paid during the preceding Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in its five-year tenure in a tweet, adding that $12.27 billion would be paid during the current fiscal year, with another $12.5 billion in FY23.
PTI made mistakes, selected wrong candidate, says PM on KPK LG elections
“Foreign debt payment this year (FY22) alone is $12.27 billion and about same $12.5 billion in FY23,” said the federal minister.
The statement comes as Pakistan’s external debt and liabilities reached $127 billion by the end of September 2021.
On Monday, data released by the central bank showed Pakistan's current account deficit widened further to $1.91 billion in November 2021, up from $1.76 billion in October, and a complete turnaround from November 2020 when it posted a surplus of $563 million.