ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has decided to lease out airports and motorways and Federal Cabinet gave approval to the decision during a meeting headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The cabinet has also given go head to mortgaging country’s motorways and airports. The highways that have been approved for mortgage include Islamabad Expressway, Islamabad-Peshawar Motorway and Pindi Bhattian Lahore section.
The cabinet has also given the approval for appointing former PIA MD Aslam R Khan the new chief of the airline. He will replace Air Marshal (retd) Arshad Malik.
The decision was announced by Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry on Tuesday while briefing the media about the decisions taken during the Federal Cabinet meeting. Prime Minister Imran Khan chaired it.
Fawad Chaudhry said that to promote the Islamic banking system, the federal cabinet has approved the issuance of Islamic Sukuk bonds and the import of 1 million tonnes of wheat.
Briefing the media about decisions taken in the federal cabinet meeting on Tuesday, he said that the cabinet has given full approval to the Finance Ministry s summary of issuance of sukuk bonds and the Finance Ministry may fix further assets in it.
Regarding electoral reforms, the minister said government is determined to give voting rights to overseas Pakistanis and to take steps to hold next general elections through Electronic Voting Machines.
“EVM is the best way to ensure transparency in the election process and the machines Pakistan wants to adopt will have both paper and electronic trail of the ballot,” he said and added the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) should take practical steps in this regard.
Fawad Chaudhry said overseas Pakistanis are a great asset for Pakistan as they contribute a lot to the national economy, adding that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government is determined to introduce I-voting for the overseas Pakistanis so that they can participate in electing the national leadership of the country.
He said it seems strange that both the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan People s Party (PPP) are afraid of giving voting rights to the overseas Pakistanis as these parties know that Prime Minister Imran Khan is the most popular leader amongst the expatriate Pakistanis.
The minister said the cabinet also approved Public Property Encroachment Bill to recover state lands from illegal occupants across Pakistan. He said it was also approved to have dual nationality with Luxemburg and now Pakistani citizens can adopt the nationality of Luxemburg as well.
To a question, the minister said around 400,000 people are being vaccinated on daily basis while we aim to vaccinate 70 million people till the end of this year. He said after achieving the desired target of vaccination drive, Covid situation will be much better in the country. He said our vaccination drive is being appreciated at various forums in the world.
Regarding issues faced by vaccinated Pakistanis going abroad, he said discussions are underway between various countries and World Health Organization to accord approval of different vaccines.
Responding to another question, Fawad Hussain urged the opposition parties to utilize Parliament for making their suggestions for electoral reforms instead of constituting other political forums. He said in this regard we welcome the suggestions of all stake holders.
