Govt Not Worried About PTI Rally: Dar

Govt not worried about PTI rally: Dar

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st August, 2016) : Minister for Finance Muhammad Ishaq Dar Sunday said the government was not worried about the scheduled rally of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on August 7. The PTI, he said, could not achieve anything through street protests as it had already wasted the nation's time during its sit-in at D-Chowk. Talking to a private news channel, the minister said the PTI protests had badly damaged the national economy and created hurdles in the signing of agreements regarding China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The PTI should do politics on issues but not at the cost of national economy, he added. Dar said the opposition's Terms of Reference (ToR) for Panama papers probe were a person specific.

The meeting of the parliamentary committee scheduled for August 1 was cancleed as the Speaker National Assembly was informed that opposition members of the committee, including Aitzaz Ahsan and Shah Mehmood Qureshi were not present in the country, he added.

He said he would not be available on August 3-5 because of final review by the International Monitory Fund (IMF) of its aid programme. He said the government was ready to make a new law on ToR to make the commission more powerful. Replying to a question, he said when the PML-N came into power, the country was facing three major challenges such as economic distress, energy shortfall and security.

Now economy was improving, which was even acknowledged by international institutions. Civil and military leaderships had taken concrete measures for the improvement of security in the country, he added. Ishaq Dar said in 1998 and 1999, Pakistan had 1200 MW surplus energy and even negotiated with India to sell the same.

Now there was shortfall of some 5000 to 6000 MW in the country. Former president Pervez Musharraf government did not launch any power generation projects to overcome the shortage, he added.