Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on Monday said that Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) parted ways due to conflict of interest, referring to an apparent collapse of the multiparty opposition alliance Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM).
The interior Minister expressed his views while addressing a news conference after inaugurating the Quaid-e-Azam’s rehabilitated portrait at Islamabad Expressway, which collapsed due to heavy rain last year.
The Minister said that both the parties had remained political arch-rivals in the past but made an alliance under the PDM’s banner, with the sole purpose to oust Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Sheikh Rashid claimed that their political moves never posed any threat to the government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, (PTI) which had already completed its three years successfully.
While commenting on the infighting in the PDM, Sheikh Rashid said the government had no role in the fallout between the political parties in PDM, but noted that it happened due to their own incompetence, “It led to the visible cracks deep inside the opposition alliance.”
Rashid urged the opposition parties to support the government in the Parliament for major reforms including political, legal, electoral, and municipal reforms for the development of the country.
While praising PM Khan, the federal minister said that he regards Imran Khan as ‘the skipper of politics’ who always sticks to his stance against corruption as the people of the country wanted full recovery of the looted money.
The Minister said the government’s prime focus has always been to address the basic issues of the masses, such as inflation.
Highlighting the government’s performance, the minister added that it was the first time in the history of Pakistan that a ruling government would be issuing 100,000 National Identity Cards (NIC) across the country. The mobile vans of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) would reach each district of the country for registration of the citizens’ CNICs, he added.
Maintaining his government’s strict stance against the land mafia, Sheikh Rashid vowed to transform Islamabad into a ‘city of parks and gardens’ by rooting out the land mafia in the federal capital. The glory of federal capital would be restored during the tenure of the Pakistan Tahreek-e Insaf government, the minister added.
The Minister said some 5 big and 231 small parks exist in the capital city, adding each of them would be renovated after 15 days of interval. He said a multipurpose sports park would also be built around the Quaid’s portrait, which was re-erected on a hillock along the Express Highway near Koral Interchange, after its fencing.
