State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb Tuesday dispelled the impression that Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi will be replaced with Kulsoom Nawaz, the wife of Nawaz Sharif, who recently won the bye-election from NA-120 constituency which was left vacant after her husband's disqualification.
"This is totally a wrong perception that Kulsoom Nawaz would be nominated as the prime minister. These are mere speculations and the reports lack facts. She was elected from NA-120 constituency and she would serve the people of the constituency as member of the National Assembly," she stated while rejecting the speculation at a press conference here.
When her comments were sought as to why there was a major difference in the statements of Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif with regard to the war on terror, she explained that both perspectives were correct as the Army Chief was speaking in one context, while the Prime Minister and foreign minister in another.
According to her, the Army Chief was speaking in the context of Pakistan's sacrifices and the gains in the fight against terrorism, while the Prime Minister and foreign minister were referring to the incomplete work to be done such as the effective implementation on the National Action Plan (NAP).
She further explained that the Prime Minister's statement should be taken in the context that the government desires to bring the terror attacks down to zero which, according to her, were 160 during this year, declining from 2,600 incidents in the previous years.
She was referring to the criticism following the statement given by the Prime Minister in London en-route to New York to address the UN General Assembly that "in-house cleaning was a must," endorsing the foreign minister's earlier statement that "we need to put our own house in order." Both the statements came in the wake of US President Donald Trump's criticism on Pakistan who repeated the old mantra of "do more" against the alleged 'safe havens' of terrorists.
The Army Chief, in his address on the Defence Day, had responded that Pakistan has already done a lot in the war on terror and now it is the world's turn to "do more."
To another query, the information minister maintained that her party's activists were picked up from NA-120 constituency ahead of the bye-election on September 17, adding the interior minister has already asked the intelligence agencies to present a report on the issue. Marriyum also shared the 'fact-finding' report on 'Pakistan Print Media Regulatory Authority', saying a senior officer of her ministry acted on his own and tried to embarrass the government by floating the idea.
She said that the 'fact-finding' report has revealed that one person alone was managing the whole affairs and illegally formulated the ordinance to replace the Press Council of Pakistan Law. The minister said that her reputation has been saved by the system of government, as all the records, minutes of the meetings, noting and dairy numbers, etc, have revealed the facts.
She stated that all the letters were issued from the office of Director General Internal Publicity Wing, Nasir Jamal, which referred to "the directives of the minister of state," adding there were no references to the letter numbers issued from her office or the office of the secretary information. Besides, she added, there 'was no minutes' of the meeting where she directed for the formulation of such a "draconian law." "The laws that tightly regulate media cannot work in current times," she said, adding that there is a system of the government and formulation of all the laws need initial approval from the Law Ministry.
But in that case, she said, there was no such approval from the Law Ministry over the 'Media Regulatory Ordinance.' To a question, she said that in the inquiry against the officer all the available options and the standard procedures would be utilized in the fast track inquiry. She said that the inquiry report would be made public.
However, she declined to comment on the query if any state entity or group was behind the episode or backing the DG Internal Publicity Wing to formulate a "fake" bill. "It is premature to say anything at this stage, let the inquiry completed and the report will reveal many things," she said. She also stated that currently there are only two laws under consideration in her ministry, namely the Access to Information Bill, which has been passed by the Senate and was currently in the National Assembly, and the second draft law under consideration is the Protection of Journalists Bill. She said that her ministry was also working on formulation of a working formula to implement wage board awards.