ISLAMABAD: Exulting at the victory of the government-backed candidates in the election for the Senate chairman and deputy chairman, Information Minister Senator Shibli Faraz has said that the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government is now in a position to forward its reform agenda for the benefit of the nation.

Addressing a press briefing here on Saturday, the minister said that opposition parties had obstructed the government’s legislation in the upper house of parliament over the last two-and-a-half years.

Mr Faraz refused to directly answer the question as to how the government would be able to get a bill passed if the opposition, which enjoys majority in the Senate, decided to oppose that piece of legislation.

The information minister expressed pleasure over the election of Sadiq Sanjrani as the Senate chairman.

Describes inflation as one of key challenges

“The government’s victory in the elections for Senate chairman and deputy chairman was the defeat of a system which has been harming the country for the last 30 years as well as those who doubted our intentions,” he said, adding that during that dark period the people of country did not prosper whereas the assets of the rulers increased manifold.

Mr Faraz asserted that since the country could not afford to regress now, it is necessary that everybody lent support to the prime minister to materialise his vision for the progress of the country. “Now it is the time to look ahead and bury the past,” he added.

After acknowledging that high inflation was one of the key challenges faced by the country, he announced that the prices of essential items would come down in near future — “you will see it soon”.

The minister highlighted the future plans of the government, saying, “We are now focused on all reforms, judicial reforms, electoral reforms, economic reforms — our challenges are improved service delivery, revival of economy and improving governance”.

He said the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) was a dead horse and buried. Its leaders should apologise to nation over their past deeds and cooperate with the government to carry forward the reforms agenda, he added.

He claimed that the Senate elections were held in a free and transparent manner. The defeat of the opposition candidates was the results of internal differences in the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Peoples Party and other parties in the Pakistan Democratic Alliance (PDM), he added. “The PML-N backstabbed the PPP and they did the same with the Maulana — JUI-F,” he said adding, “This has been their tradition and part of their political culture throughout the history.”

He referred to the clause of open elections in the Charter of Democracy signed by the PML-N and PPP and said that the same was supported by “Imran Khan when he said that such a reform was beneficial for all of us”.

In response to a query about his earlier statement that the PTI will respond to the opposition in the same coin in the elections of the Senate chairman and deputy chairman, Mr Faraz said, “Our politics is based on ethics — but ethics do not mean that we allow them to slap us on the face, but the only difference this time was that we were prepared for their negative politics.”

Regarding the PDM plans for a long march, he said that it was their constitutional right and they might go ahead with it. But, he believed, the opposition’s long march would not get any support from the masses.

About the opposition’s accusations that “spy cameras” were installed inside the Senate polling booths, Mr Faraz said that the opposition staged a “drama”. The opposition was the “mastermind behind this wicked conspiracy”, he added.

He held the parties in the opposition responsible for the country’s debts and other ills.

This was the first news conference which Mr Faraz did at the official Press Information Department (PID) after taking fresh oath as a senator on Friday.

Some legal experts believe that Mr Faraz is required to take a fresh oath as the federal minister as well since he is no more the minister after his retirement as the senator after the March 12 midnight.

A highly-placed source in the Ministry of Law and Justice also said that since Mr Faraz was enjoying his position in the cabinet by virtue of being a senator, therefore, when he ceased to be a senator for nearly 12 hours, there was a need for issuance of a fresh notification about his appointment as the federal minister.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2021