ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry has stated that “external forces” are involved in the botched terrorist attack on the Chinese consulate in Karachi and the government knows “very well” about the perpetrators.

Speaking at a ceremony in connection with collection of donations for the families of the police personnel martyred in the attack here on Monday, the minister without elaborating said the increasing economic and strategic cooperation between Pakistan and China had upset “enemies” and they were carrying out such “foolish acts” out of frustration.

Chinese Deputy Head of Mission in Islamabad Lijian Zhao was also present in the ceremony.

The Chinese community in Islamabad and in China has launched a campaign to collect funds for the families of Assistant Sub Inspector Ashraf Dawood and Constable Amir who sacrificed their lives to foil the attack on the Chinese consulate in Karachi on Friday.

Fawad says commission has been launched for implementation of Right to Information Act

The minister paid tributes to the martyred police personnel and said the fund-raising campaign for their families was proof of deep-rooted relations bet­ween China and Pakistan.

He said the attack was part of a “big conspiracy” to sabotage Pakistan’s friendly relations with China, but the enemies would never succeed in their nefarious designs. He said the world fully knew as to who was standing for peace and stability in the region and who was trying to sabotage it.

Mr Chaudhry said Pakistan’s armed forces, police, intelligence and other law-enforcement agencies and the people had rendered unprecedented sacrifices in this war against terrorism.

“Had any other country faced a similar situation and fought such a long war against terrorism, it would have become disintegrated by now,” he added.

The Chinese deputy head of mission said the Chinese people were raising funds for the families of the martyred police officers. He said the attackers should remember that China had a population of over 1.4 billion and if each Chinese citizen donated one yuan, 1.4 billion yuan would be collected. He disclosed that a Chinese citizen had decided to donate one month’s salary to the families of the policemen.

Mr Zhao said they wanted to tell terrorists that their efforts to sabotage Pakistan-China friendship would never succeed.

Later, speaking at a ceremony to launch Federal Information Commission for implementation of Right to Information (RTI) Act, the information minister said the provision of setting up of the commission was there in the law but the previous governments were hesitant about implementing it.

He even named PPP’s Khursheed Shah and PML-N’s Mushahidullah Khan for hiding away from disclosing facts and figures about more than a trillion rupees spent over uplift of Balochistan.

“This will not happen now and each government department will be obliged to give information in 10 days and if any department does not comply, the case will be taken up by the commission which will then arrange the information within 30 days,” he said.

Mr Chaudhry said the three-member commission would have powers of civil courts and the powers of summoning and contempt. The commission notified by the government earlier this month is headed by former information secretary Mohammad Azam and comprises civil society activist Zahid Abdullah and lawyer Fawad Malik.

The minister said 34 initiatives had been taken by the government under six themes during its 100 days in office and Prime Minister Imran Khan would brief the nation about it at a ceremony on Thursday.

He said the RTI Act would be more beneficial for the journalists who could ask any question like how much advertisements had been given to a particular newspaper or TV channel in a month and who had been given contract of a particular project and at what cost.

He said that politics of most of the opposition members was over now and they had contested last elections of their life.

Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2018