People will reject those elements, who deny them their fundamental rights, Federal Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Firdous Aashiq Awan said on Saturday.
She was talking to journalists. “Those who reject people’s struggle for their rights will be rejected tomorrow when they will come to the masses”, the minister said. Firdous said that a sense of deprivation was prevailing in South Punjab adding that the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) had started a series of dialogue on demand of the people of this region. “Our party felt the pulse of the people of South Punjab and diagnosed their ailment so that the problems facing the people of this region could be addressed”, she underlined.
If thinking of any other leadership coincides with the thinking of our leadership then it is a good movement forward, the minister said adding that it will strengthen the federation, institutions and provinces. “As far as the thinking of PML-N President Nawaz Sharif was concerned that the scope of creation of new provinces be extended to other provinces, I want to make it clear that it is their counselling and not dictation. There should be a difference between consultation and dictation. We are finding a way for carving out new provinces by taking along all stakeholders through the process of dialogue”, Firdous said. The minister said that if people of other provinces have such thinking that new small provinces be created then dialogue should take place. The role of all political parties was very vital in this regard, she said. Responding to a question, the minister said that neither the PPP nor anyone else had the powers for creation of a new province and such powers rest with people of the respective province only. Exercising these powers was a mandate of representatives elected by the people, she said.
Firdous said that elected representatives of Punjab had taken a step for creation of a new province and if such a step was taken by elected representatives in any other province, then how their voices could be controlled, the minister said. Replying to another question, she said that transferring and posting officers was prerogative of the PM and the Supreme Court (SC) had acknowledged it. The federal government had implemented all decisions of the SC, she said.
