The federal cabinet on Tuesday decided to refer the amnesty scheme for legalisation of undisclosed assets and income to the Law Ministry for seeking its legal opinion on whether to launch the scheme through a presidential ordinance or in the form of a money bill.
Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain while addressing a press conference said that Law Minister Farogh Naseem, Finance Minister Asad Umer, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Commerce, Textile Industry, Production and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood, State Minister for Revenue Hammad Azhar and Privatisation Minister Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtyar have worked upon the feasibility of amnesty scheme and now Law Ministry will suggest whether it should be implemented as an ordinance or a money bill.
Chaudhry said that Finance Minister Asad Umar has reached the United States to hold talks with International Monetary Fund (IMF) in connection with bailout package. He said the minister would also discuss asset declaration scheme with the IMF officials.
The federal cabinet has decided to start off Naya Pakistan Housing Authority project with the construction of 135,000 apartments, he said. He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan will launch the project on April 17 in the capital where 25,000 apartments will be built for the federal government employees. The remaining 110,000 apartments will be built in Balochistan, Chaudhry said.
He added that the project includes a housing society for the fishermen in Gwadar. "For the first time, fishermen will have a roof over their heads and they will be given modern accommodation," the information minister announced.
The Prime Minister had promised to build five million houses in an October 2018 launch ceremony of the Naya Pakistan Housing Programme.
The federal cabinet also decided to take action against people responsible for power and gas theft, Chaudhry told the media persons. He said that Prime Minister Khan had instructed relevant authorities to hold the "big thieves" accountable first so that "an example can be set."
Electricity theft, worth Rs 40 billion, has been stopped, he said while mentioning that there is a large number of homes which are not even receiving electricity bills.
Chaudhry said a grant of ninety-four million euros from Germany was also approved to be utilised for the provision of clean drinking water to the residents of Faisalabad.
He said it is in a process to name a train station after Baba Guru Nanak. He also told the media that the cabinet has made it mandatory for all government departments to use Pakistan Post for the delivery purposes instead of private delivery postal services.
He said that new board of Evacuee Property Trust Board has been constituted. He said the treatment related to liver disease has been shifted to Bait-ul-Maal which will sponsor the treatment for the poor. He said a number of MoUs have been signed between Financial Intelligence Department of the UAE and Financial Monitory Unit Pakistan, and Pakistan is expecting the UAE to share intelligence about the properties of Pakistanis over there similarly as the Saudi Arabia has shared earlier. He said there are a number of properties bought by Pakistanis over there and the detailed information will be received by next month.
The cabinet also decided to deport Abid Muhammad s/o Bakhsh Muhammad to the UAE and similarly Afroz Alam Lari will be extradited to Saudi Arabia.
He said that the terms and conditions for the chairman 8th Wage Board have been approved.
He said that flagship programme of Information Ministry, Media University, has been approved. He said Pakistan lacks the capacity of media technology and the industry is facing problems due to this. He said the Media University is being set up with merger of existing academies of Pakistan Television, Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation and Information Service. He said all the three institutions will be merged and a central institution will be in Islamabad. He said media technology, digital media, cinematography, and other modern media techniques would be taught at this university. He said the objective behind establishment of the state-of-the-art university is to give modern technological training to the future media professionals as presently Pakistan is lagging behind in technology.
He said that he may visit China soon to seek professional cooperation for the Media University. He said he had discussed the project with Chinese firms ZTE and Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and would also take the US firms on board. He said the government is planning to build this university on public-private partnership model and no funds from public sector would be spent on it.
He said that MD PTV will be appointed soon, adding 42 applications have been received so far; however, the agenda item has been deferred for a week. The cabinet would seek recommendation from Law Ministry and other ministries in this regard.
He questioned where loans taken during the tenures of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) were used. "The total loans of Pakistan from 1947-2008 amounted to $37 billion. From these loans, Islamabad, Tarbela, Mangla and naval bases were built. The army was provided with the latest weapons, Gwadar and the motorways were built. From 2008-18 the loans increased to $97 billion which is an increase of $60 billion. The question is where this money went?" the minister ásked.
Chaudhry alleged that two families distributed this amount amongst themselves. "Both ruling families used the Hudaibiya fraud model several times. Money was sent abroad using Hundi and Hawala. Fake accounts and fake people were used. Nawaz Sharif, Shehbaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari were central characters while there are dozens with side roles." He ensured that the corrupt would be held accountable. "If there were kingship in Pakistan, we would have hanged 200 people upside down to extract the money out but we are moving forward according to the law," he said.
He said the government is determined to eradicate corruption and would facilitate NAB when and where required and asked for.