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RAWALPINDI: Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmed has predicted that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz president Shahbaz Sharif will not appear before the National Accountability Bureau for answering questions in an investigation into the money laundering and income-beyond-means case even on its next date and that NAB will have to arrest him so as to start the probe into the case.
Talking to reporters during his visit to Rawalpindi Institute of Urology (RIU) on Tuesday, the minister claimed that the opposition leader in the National Assembly had returned to the country with a dream of formation of a national government and not for helping people affected by the coronavirus outbreak.
Sheikh Rashid said that his advice for Prime Minister Imran Khan was to reconcile with the opposition and the media. In this difficult time when the country was fighting a deadly virus, the government and the opposition should work together, he added.
He said Pakistan Railways would likely to resume its train service from April 25. But, he added, a decision in this regard was linked to approval by the prime minister. He said initially limited number of trains might be run by adopting standard operating procedures for social distancing among passengers.
The minister said that there was a dire need of a joint strategy to deal with the coronavirus situation in the country. He said provision of relief to the people affected by the lockdown was the government’s top priority.
He said that as many as six people had lost their lives due to coronavirus in Rawalpindi district, adding that 196 patients had been admitted to different hospitals and 58 patients had been discharged by the hospitals after the recovery.
Answering a question, he said Pakistan Railways had six ventilators and it had turned its medical van into a high-dependency unit.
He said that employees of Pakistan Railways had donated over Rs50 million to the PM’s Covid-19 relief fund. The minister urged the Sindh government to release those people who were taken into custody in the province for violating Section 144.
Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2020
