Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso on Wednesday took serious notice of the recent spate of terrorist activities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan and directed Interior Minister Malik Habib to immediately devise a plan to counter terror threats by taking onboard authorities in all four provinces.
A source in the federal cabinet told Pakistan Today that a high-level meeting would be held within the next few days and the inspectors general Police (IGPs) of all four provinces would be attending the meeting.
Briefing the media on the cabinet decisions, Information Minister Arif Nizami said the prime minister, while chairing the second meeting of the federal cabinet, said the government would take all necessary measures to hold “credible polls” while law and order would be improved to provide a secure environment to the voters as well as the candidates.
Responding to a volley of questions about registration of treason case under Article 6 of the constitution by the caretaker government against former dictator General Pervez Musharraf, Nizami said the government would implement the court verdict “in letter and spirit”.
“The matter is subjudice so I will not comment. However, let me state that the court’s verdict would be implemented in letter and spirit,” he added.
Asked whether the government would ask the Election Commission of Pakistan to review its scrutiny process, the minister said an independent ECP had been formed in line with the Charter of Democracy (CoD) reached between the leadership of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
“The government can only facilitate the ECP, it cannot direct it,” he added.
At the onset of the meeting, the prime minister condemned the recent wave of terrorism in Karachi and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, saying the culprits of these terrorist acts would be brought to the book at all costs.
Nizami said the prime minister directed law enforcement agencies to beef up security and urged the provincial governments to keep a vigilant eye on any suspicious activity and evolve a mechanism to counter any such terrorist act with iron hands.
The cabinet offered prayers for all those martyred in Tuesday’s earthquake and terrorist acts, Nizami added.
“The prime minister said the mandate of the caretaker government was to assist the ECP in conducting free, fair and transparent elections. He said the caretaker government would act in a non-partisan fashion and dissuade from indulging in any kind of partisanship,” the minister said.
Nizami said the minister for water and power briefed the Cabinet on the current energy situation and immediate and short-term steps being taken by the ministry to ease out the current energy crisis.
These steps, he added, included arrangement of additional financial support from Ministry of Finance for fuel procurement and allocation of gas to power plants that were non-operational due to less or non-availability of gas.
“These steps would result in easing out the current hours of power outages to some extent,” Nizami said, adding that the situation would improve further when generation from hydel sources increases with enhanced river flow.
The cabinet considered and approved the public sector procurement of wheat crop 2012-13. Based on the consultations with the provinces, 7.91 million tons of wheat would be procured by provinces and PASSCO.
He said the cabinet also reviewed consumer price index and discussed the trend of prices of essential commodities. The cabinet was informed that of 53 items, prices of 28 remained unchanged and prices of 10 items decreased. The cabinet expressed satisfaction over the decreasing trend in the CPI.
The minister said the cabinet reviewed status of implementation of cabinet’s decision pertaining to Narcotics Control Division. The cabinet was informed that 68 percent of the decisions taken by the cabinet had been implemented and the remaining were in the process of implementation.
The cabinet, Nizami added, was also informed that Pakistan had signed MOUs with 29 countries on cooperation in narcotics control.
The minister for law and justice also gave a presentation on international arbitration/litigation, the minister concluded.
