Sunday, 12 June, 2022 I 12 Dhul-Qadah, 1443 I Rs 15.00 I Vol XII No 343 I 12 Pages I Karachi Edition
PPP toP brass dePlores byPassing Parliament in talks with ttP ISLAMABAD
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mian abrar
akistan People’s Party (PPP) top brass saturday deplored federal government’s dialogue with the banned terrorist outfit, tehreek-e-taliban Pakistan (ttP), tehreek-e-taliban afghanistan (tta), bypassing of the parliament and called for making Parliament on board over the issue. a high level meeting of PPP was held in Zardari house islamabad to discuss in depth the issue of terrorism particularly in the light of recent developments in afghanistan with the tta & ttP. the hybrid meeting presided over by former President asif ali Zardari and party chairman bilawal bhutto Zardari was attended by senior party leadership. the meeting was attended among others by two former prime ministers yousuf raza Gillani, raja Pervez ashraf, Faryal talpur, sindh chief minister murad ali shah, syed khursheed shah, sherry rehman, nayyer bukhari, najmuddin khan, President PPP kP chapter, Faisal karim kundi, humayun khan, ch yasin, Qamar Zaman kaira, chaudhry manzoor, nadeem afzal chan, akhunzada chattan, rukhsana bangash, nisar khuhro and Farhatullah babar. a statement issued by secretary General PPP Farhatullah babar said that the meeting reiterated the Party position that all decisions must be taken by the parliament and thus the parliament must be taken on board. the party also decided to reach out to allied parties to create consensus on the way forward. “PPP believes that all decisions must be taken by parliament. will be reaching out to allied parties to create consensus on the way forward,” Fm bilawal said in a tweet.
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Party wants all decisions to be taken by the Parliament
on June 3, Pakistan welcomed the ceasefire announced by the banned ttP, as the federal government for the first time publicly acknowledged it was negotiating a peace deal with the outlawed outfit. the confirmation from the government came a day after the ttP extended the ceasefire for an indefinite period after the Pakistani tribal jirga visited kabul and held talks with the ttP leadership. both sides have been holding talks for the last several weeks but the Pak-
istani side until now remained tightlipped. Questions were asked about whether the current government was on board with talks with the ttP as military officials held a series of meetings with the militant outfit in recent days in the afghan capital. Federal information minister maryam aurangzeb, in a statement, said the talks with the ttP were taking place at the government level. “talks with the ttP began in 2021 and these negotiations have been taking
Miftah says economic crisis result of financial mismanagement
ISLAMABAD Staff report
minister for Finance miftah ismail on saturday blamed the misgovernance of the past governments for the damage to the economy which he claimed compelled the administration of shehbaz sharif to present one of the toughest budgets in Pakistan’s history. addressing the post-budget press conference in islamabad, the minister said if the menace of maladministration was not addressed in a timely manner, it’d cause further devastation. “which is exactly why this government had to present an austerity budget to address those issues,” he said. ismail was flanked by minister for in-
formation and broadcasting marriyum aurangzeb, minister of state for Finance and revenue aisha Ghaus Pasha and officials from the Finance division. he stressed the need to fix the country administratively, otherwise, the economy won’t survive. “we ask other nations for loans, packages and deposits. Pakistan is a proud country, a country of proud people, a nuclear power […] we will have to fix our economy,” he said. “we should not incur such expenditures that we cannot afford.” the minister said the budget was presented at a time when the country was experiencing hardships. “at least for the last 30 years, i have never seen such difficult times where on one side Pakistan is faced with an inter-
nationally challenging environment and on the other, the governance mechanism has worsened,” ismail remarked. Unfortunately, no measures were taken by the previous government to fix the economy, he declared. citing massive bleeding of cash in the power and gas sectors, ismail said during the last fiscal year alone, rs3,400 billion in losses were recorded in the two sectors owing to subsidies and defaults. the minister said subsidies of over rs 1,100 billion were given to the power sector. the circular debt has reached rs500 billion, taking the total losses of the sector to rs1,600 billion, he said. the country wasn’t able to bear those losses, which, if not addressed, would damage the economy, he added. likewise, the minister said, rs400 billion in subsidies was given in the gas sector coupled with rs1,400 billion circular debt whereas the sui northern Gas Pipelines limited (snGPl) faced a loss of rs200 billion. Gas valuing $2.4 billion was lost annually at the network of the company which had never been accounted for. however, he assured the government would provide gas to the industry at rates that were competitive in the regional market. the minister said the previous government had caused huge damages to the economy, however, Prime minister shehbaz sharif took difficult decisions and would continue to take more, if required, to put the country back on track.
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place at the government level,” the minister said, confirming the peace talks with the banned group. the minister also confirmed that the afghan taliban were acting as mediators between the two sides. she said that civil and military representatives were part of the Pakistani side holding talks with ttP. she said the government welcomed the ceasefire announced by the ttP. but the PPP’s latest statement suggested that all the coalition partners were not on board.
in return for a ceasefire, Pakistan reportedly released certain ttP prisoners and even pardoned some who were convicted in terror cases. there was, however, no official confirmation. the ttP has put forward several demands including reversal of Fata merger, monetary compensation and allowing them to keep their arms. the Pakistani side, however, wants them to lay down their arms and is also reluctant to restore the status of Fata. there were questions asked about whether the Pakistani team holding talks with the ttP had the mandate to discuss matters that involve constitutional amendments. the information minister clarified that the negotiation committee had the mandate. “whatever decision the team will arrive at would be approved by the government and Parliament.” the peace process resumed last month after Pakistan sent a clear message to the afghan taliban government that it would no more tolerate cross-border terrorist attacks. over 120 Pakistani security forces were martyred this year in terrorist attacks mostly carried out by the ttP from across the border. in april, frequent cross-border terrorist attacks compelled Pakistan to launch retaliatory air strikes targeting the ttP hideouts across the border. it also warned the afghan taliban to take stern action against the ttP, which was operating with impunity from the afghan soil. the afghan taliban, feeling pressure from Pakistan, once again persuaded the ttP to engage with Pakistan. a few weeks ago, a Pakistani delegation led by Peshawar corps commander lt General Faiz hameed visited kabul and held talks with the ttP. the talks led to renewal of truce by ttP for may 30 which has now been extended indefinitely.
PTI not to leave field empty for rivals in by-polls: Qureshi MULTAN Saleem Jadoon
Vice chairman Pakistan tehreek-einsaf (Pti) makhdoom shah mehmood Qureshi on saturday said that Pti is truly a political party, which will never leave field empty for the opponents in by-elections. “the Pti wants transparent elections and would never allow anyone to hijack or manipulate the public mandate.” talking to media persons after acceptance of nomination papers of Zain hussain Qureshi for by-polls to PP 217, shah mahmood Qureshi stated that Pti would continue its fights for elimination of outdated system in the country. he also alleged that the state resources are being utilized for the electioneering of Pml-n candidate. responding to a question about grand dialogue on economy, Qureshi stated that grand dialogue is not a bad thing but it should be done during the tenure of the government which secured fresh mandate after general elections. he stated the present government was a temporary regime, based on political parties having different political ideologies. he stated that achievements of last regime of Pti were mentioned in economic survey unveiled by this “imported government.” the Pti government performed outstandingly in exports, remittance, industrial growth, agriculture uplift and many other sectors of the economy. Qureshi declared that the Pti
wants transparent elections and would never allow anyone to hijack or manipulate the public mandate. responding to a question, shah mehmood Qureshi remarked that he did know about the duration of the present assemblies. to another question about issuance of ticket to Zain Qureshi, makhdoom shah mahmood Qureshi observed that Zain hussain Qureshi was nominated after due consultation in the party.