TAXILA - Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Pervaiz Rashid urged yesterday the local administration of all provinces to build consensus for the sake of country’s development.
Talking to media after attending the Orange Festival in Taxila, Pervaiz Rashid said the government wanted to move forward on the path of progress and development and for this purpose initiated numerous development projects in the country.
He said that National Accountability Bureau (NAB) made interference in these development projects. Referring to Prime Minister Sharif’s recent statement regarding the NAB, the minister said it was aimed at pointing out hurdles in the way of development. The minister said the present government launched development projects in such a large number which were not initiated in the last 65 years.
He said some of the projects had been completed and work on others was underway. He said the prime minister also talked about other regularity authorities, who delayed the process of decision-making and resultantly development projects were delayed. He said these authorities should work with the required speed. Rashid said all the projects initiated by the incumbent government under the prime minister's leadership were corruption-free and 100 per cent transparent.
He said under the leadership of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the government was executing mega development projects swiftly.
The sit-in of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf had impeded the pace of projects initiated for the progress, prosperity and development of the country, he added. The minister said besides NAB, the prime minister had also talked about other regularity authorities which were hindering the execution of development projects.
He said it was unfortunate that NAB had started threatening officials even if the development project was at the stage of designing, proposal or feasibility. He said the government was not going to clip the wings of NAB rather discussion was underway for reforms in the body.
The reforms, he said, would be tabled before the Parliament as it was true spirit of democracy. He said it was the government's responsibility to protect its officials and the prime minister expressed the reservations keeping that in view.
Even the NAB chairman, he added, had also admitted some procedural problems in the Bureau's system.
He said during dictatorships, the information was concealed from the public and objectives were achieved through issuing ordinances but on the contrary now every national issue was resolved through consensus.
Answering another question, he said the prime minister had asked the PML-N leadership in Azad Jammu and Kashmir to inform the people about the performance of AJK government. The party workers had been advised not to make personal attacks on any AJK leader. Pervaiz Rashid said the post-mortem report of the man killed in Nakial, AJK, had revealed that his death occurred due to congestion, not by a bullet. It was unfortunate that cases had been registered against the PML-N workers and arrests had also been made by the police, he regretted.
The minister said the autopsy report was also prepared by the incumbent AJK administration that had cleared the PML-N workers of killing the person. Replying to a query, he said the Parliament had been taken into confidence regarding the steps taken by the government on the Pathankot issue.
The government, he said, had never concealed any information and any parliamentarian could get information through question hour, calling attention notice, adjournment motion or at standing committees. To another question, he said the government had desired to hold population census in March but it was delayed due to lack of consensus among the provinces. Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah had also called an All Parties Conference on the matter, he added. He said that consensus would be evolved in the upcoming meeting of Council of Common Interests (CCI) on the population census.
Pervaiz Rashid said Imran Khan always retracted his statements, like he had termed the appointment of NAB chairman a 'compromise' in the past and now he claimed to be his supporter. If Imran did not accept the government's stance, he should at least believe in the words of NAB chairman about the procedural problems in the Bureau's system, he added.
Earlier, addressing the participants of the Orange Festival, he said that the glipmses of Taxila's old civilization showed that the people at time knew the importance of time like today.
The festival, he said, had shown the soft image of Pakistan to the foreign ambassadors from across the world, who enjoyed the nice weather as well as the fruit. The diplomats and their families, who were served with oranges and juices, also witnessed a horse and cultural dance. Ambassadors of Romania, Sri Lanka, European Union and Middle Eastern states were among the foreign dignitaries who attended the event.

STAFF REPORET/AGENCIES