Fawad calls rise of ‘extremist’ JUI-F a threat to society

Federal Minister for information and Broadcasting Fawad Chauhdry has said that the resurgence of a party like Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) means a lot is wrong with our society.

He called JUI-F “a symbol of regressive society” and said that it was a cause of concern that a party “which is against liberties, women rights and has religious extremist ideologies” has made a comeback.

The federal minister was speaking a day after JUI-F bagged most mayoral/tehsil chairmen seats in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa local bodies elections.

“The rise of parties like Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan and JUI-F will damage Pakistan,” Chaudhry said at a press briefing after a federal cabinet meeting in Islamabad.

He said that JUI-F is the party which destroyed the educational and financial system of the province when it rose to power in 2002.

“If the replacement for the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) is JUI-F, then people of the country and the PTI’s leadership have to seriously think about it.”

He said JUIF should have been relegated to past but it made a comeback after PTI committed mistakes.

Talking about the reason for his party’s poor showing in the elections, the minster blamed the management of tickets and the difference within the party cadres.

“We could only give one ticket. Those who didn’t get the ticket stood as independent. Our three to four people were fighting the election from one constituency.”

Despite this, the elections showed that PTI is the only national-level party in the country, he said.

“It is important that PTI’s leaders and workers should put their petty differences aside and work towards strengthening Imran Khan’s politics.”

Briefing journalists about the meeting, the minister said the federal cabinet has formed a committee headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan to formulate the Food Security Policy. A new food security policy is needed after the 18th amendment, he said.

‘Economy is growing’

The information minister said that the rise in current account deficit is primarily due to the procurement of coronavirus vaccines and the payment of Rs134 billion to independent power producers (IPPs).

Numbers released by the State Bank of Pakistan showed that the current account deficit has hit $7 billion in the first five months of the fiscal year 2021-22.

Chaudhry said that all the indicators suggest that the economy is growing and people’s income is increasing.

“In the past two years, the number of car manufacturers in Pakistan grew from five to 15. Banks have disbursed Rs338 billion in car financing.”

“There are 200,000 companies registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP). Over 150,000 companies were registered in the past three years.”

This is despite that we have retired the debt of $12.27b in 2021. So far we have retired the $55b loans taken by the governments of PPP and PMLN, he said.

He said claimed that the electricity has not become expensive in Pakistan. The hike in tariff is due to the fuel price adjustment for October 2021, and as the global oil prices come down electricity will become cheaper, he said.

On Monday, the Central Power Purchasing Agency or CPPA requested the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority or Nepra to increase the per-unit price of electricity by Rs2.65.

Earlier this month, Nepra had increased the electricity tariff by Rs4.74 per unit.