ISLAMABAD: Minister for Infor-mation and Broadcasting Senator Shibli Faraz on Sunday said the prime minister was giving special emphasis to checking inflation and controlling prices of daily-use commodities.

Addressing a press conference, he said targeted subsidy would be given to people on essential items, including electricity tariff. The dream of owning a personal home by the poor would be materialised under the new housing scheme launched by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government, he said.

The minister said ‘universal’ insurance had been given to the entire population of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa through the Insaf Sehat card and the same would be replicated in Punjab. The country’s economy, he added, had been stabilised and its benefits would reach the poor soon.

The minister said the PTI believed in democratic norms and it was fighting for upholding democratic principles as well as ethical values. The people acknowledged endeavours of the incumbent government and supported Imran Khan in this struggle.

Says people support PTI to uphold democratic norms

He said PM Khan believed in the politics of principles and decided to get a fresh vote of confidence although legally there was no need for it. The National Assembly reposed confidence in the leadership of Mr Khan with even more votes than he received in 2018, he said.

Mr Faraz said a wave of jubilation and celebration was witnessed not only inside Pakistan, but thousands of felicitation messages were also received from abroad after he secured the vote of confidence.

He said Mr Khan’s success in securing a vote of confidence had given a new spirit to the people who understood that the designs of dark forces had been defeated.

The minister said opposition parties, especially their alliance Pakistan Democratic Movement, believed in politics of self-interest, bullying and the sale and purchase of loyalties. They had damaged the entire social, economic and political system in the past four decades, he added.

He said some of the opposition leaders entered politics at the time of the 1985 party-less elections and introduced the culture of bribery and horse-trading to come into power.

Mr Faraz said due to the political approach of past rulers the country faced severe challenges, which added to the suffering of the masses, whereas they plundered national wealth and built properties not only inside Pakistan, but in Europe and other parts of the world.

They turned politics into a business and used it for self-interest and not for the interest of the country, he added.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2021