PESHAWAR: There was no restriction in the country on organisation of political parties and any number of such parties with any constitution could function freely. This was stated by Khwaja Shahabuddin, Central Minister for Information and Broadcasting, while talking to pressmen here this morning [July 5]. He said that Pakistan Muslim League was being reorganised from the grass roots to associate the common man with it and make it popular among the masses. He said this would root out corruption in elections.

Khwaja Shahabuddin said the Government alone could not suppress corruption in politics. It could be ended only by improving the character of the voters. The Minister said he was in favour of holding Basic Democracies elections on a party basis. He opposed the Parliamentary system of democracy and said Pakistan could neither afford so much expenditure nor was it feasible.

[Meanwhile, as reported by our correspondent from Washington] Mr Otto Passman, Chairman of the House Appropriations Sub-Committee on Foreign Aid, has suggested that American aid be considered to solve India’s problem of millions of non-productive cows freely roaming around the country. During the recent hearing on the Foreign Aid Bill, the Louisiana Democrat said that during his visit to India last year he was told that there were 200 million sacred cows in India, that there were no fences, and that in all probability those 200 million sacred cows destroyed some 40 per cent of India’s food and fibre. He added: “During our visit we looked awfully hard for some fences. We found an awful lot of cows and saw a lot of fields but we never found any fences.”

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2015

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