LAHORE: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Pervaiz Rashid says those talking about revolution are trying to fail the Zarb-i-Azb military operation being conducted in North Waziristan.

Talking to the media after a function at National College of Arts (NCA) here on Sunday, he questioned the timing chosen by some politicians for their protest movements.

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Referring to the Aug 14 long march on Islamabad by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and Dr Tahirul Qadri’s revolution call, he said these calls were being made at a time when the armed forces were engaged in an operation against terrorists.

Rashid says PPP itself is divided on Musharraf deal issue

The ‘revolutionists’, he said, were attempting to fail the operation.

Rashid said it was very strange that Dr Tahirul Qadri predicted events before they took place and named the responsible. Similarly, he said PTI leader Shah Mehmood Quershi was predicting another Model Town tragedy if the government blocked the PTI’s long march and questioned the PTI vice-chairman as to how he knew everything beforehand. He reiterated the PML-N’s stance that it had no link with the safe exit deal for Musharraf as claimed by former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

He said Pervez Musharraf had himself rejected the claims made by Gilani, and added, “What remains to be commented upon when the PPP leadership itself is divided on the issue.”

He said statements of the PPP leadership including Farhatullah Babar, Gilani and Qamar Zaman Kaira were conflicting while Pervez Musharraf himself denied any kind of deal. The minister said the PML-N had a very clear stance on the dictators and it had never been a part of any deal against the Constitution and would not do any such act in future.

Regarding the operation, the minister said, “people of the area had been held hostage in their own homes and land and it was the responsibility of the state to rescue the land and people from usurpers and terrorists.”

He said the armed forces had been doing rescue work in North Waziristan and soon people would return to their homes safe and sound.

To a question regarding cross border firing incident in Bajaur, the minister said Pakistan had launched a strong protest with the Afghan authorities.

Regarding power loadshedding, he said the PML-N government was taking every possible step to address the issue. He said the power plants started production with full capacity shortly due to the government efforts but the main issue was of the transmission lines.

The previous regime, he alleged, did not carry out any work on transmission lines but the PML-N government was also working on power transmission lines for resolving the energy issue.

He said the government would explore all possible avenues to get cheap electricity from some Central Asian states and Iran to meet the country’s needs.

Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2014