Federal Cabinet Has Expressed Serious Reservations Over The Videos Circulating On The Social Media Networking Sites Showing That Votes Were Being Bought For The Upcoming By-election In Lahore: Chaudhry Fawad Hussain

Fawad said the Federal Cabinet had expressed serious reservations over the videos circulating on the social media networking sites showing that votes were being bought for the upcoming by-election in Lahore

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 30th Nov, 2021 ) :Fawad said the Federal Cabinet had expressed serious reservations over the videos circulating on the social media networking sites showing that votes were being bought for the upcoming by-election in Lahore.

He said such illegal activities did not come to the fore in the by-election, if steps were taken by the ECP against horse trading in the recent Senate election.

The free and fair polls were lifeline of a democratic system where elections were the basis for formation of government, he said, highlighting the national election watchdog's effective and important role in that regard.

He urged the ECP to take the matter of purchase of votes by specific political parties in Lahore to a logical conclusion.

Fawad said the Federal Cabinet was briefed by Minister for Science and Technology Shibli Faraz in detail about total number of required EVMs for the elections.

He said formalities for receiving $3 billion Dollars in safe deposits and $1.2 billion worth of oil supplies on differed payment from Saudi Arabia had been completed.

The ITFC (International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation) had given additional $762 million to Pakistan which would ensure stability of rupee against Dollar, he added.

The minister said a presentation on weekly prices of kitchen items was also given to the Federal Cabinet and it was noted that there had been a steady decline in commodities prices.

Price of sugar had seen substantial decrease in the last one month, he said, lashing out at the Sindh government for delaying crushing of sugarcane's crops which caused increase in the price of sweetener.

He said prices of essential commodities in Karachi and Hyderabad were quite high which required urgent attention of the Sindh government.

It was Karachi which played major role in fluctuation of the Sensitive Price Index, he added. Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said that with the increase in rice production, the country was likely to earn $4.75 billion foreign exchange. The weekly presentation of kitchen items given to the cabinet transpired that the prices of essential were on declining trend, he added.

He said it showed that 0.67 percent decrease had been registered in prices of essential items of daily use in recent days.

In only month period sugar price had come down to Rs 60 per kg, he added.

He blamed Sindh government for increase in Sugar price.

"Inflation is rampant in the cities like Karachi and Hyderabad," he said adding that PTI government was being portrayed as inexperienced party but the party governing the province for over 30 years had failed to check food inflation.

The 40 percent upward trend in sensitive price index (SPI) was due to inflation in Karachi and Sindh, he said adding that the price of tomato had registered 15.

4 percent decrease, onion price by 7.4 percent and chicken price had decreased by 6.6 percent recently. Wheat flour bag price had decreased by one percent, he added.

He said Liquefied Petroleum Gas price had decreased by 0.7 percent .

Also the country has produced 9 million Matric ton rice this year.

The cabinet observed that the Kitchen items were cheapest in Pakistan as comparing to the entire region. The government was doing utmost to minimize the impacts of global inflation, he said.

The minister said in Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad a flour bag was available at Rs 1,100 per bag, and same was available at Rs 1,404 per bag in Karachi and Rs 1,443 at Hyderabad due to bad governance of Pakistan Peoples Party's government.

He said in international market, a sack of urea was available at Rs 10,500 per bag, adding that it was available at Rs 1,700 per bag in Punjab.

A smuggler fetched upto Rs 7 million for smuggling a truck of urea from Pakistan to any other country, he added.

The minister said it was noted that the consumption of urea had abruptly increased in Sindh by 53 percent in last six months. It showed that hoarding was rampant in the province and smugglers were being facilitated in the province, he said, adding due to this reason Punjab's farmer was suffering and buying urea from black market. The Sindh government must check the hoarding to provide solace to farmers, he said.

The minister said PTI government had launched a crackdown against hoarders in Punjab, which helped decreasing the price of urea by Rs 400 per bag in the province. Some 347 FIRs were registered against hoarders and 244 were arrested, 21,101 inspections were conducted and 480 warehouses were sealed and Rs 30 million fine was imposed on hoarders in Punjab, he added.

Fawad said in contrary, Sindh government did nothing to check hoarding due to involvement of members of the sitting government.

Divulging cabinet decisions, he said Petroleum Division briefed the cabinet about vacant posts of Managing Director and Chief Executive Officers in the division and attached departments and appraised the cabinet that the appointment process on four vacant posts was continuing.

The cabinet tasked Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam to devise a long term policy to control smog on permanent basis, he added.

The minister said the cabinet okayed enhancing visa duration of Tablighi Jamat from 120 to 150 days, besides providing them E-Visa facility.