Sit-ins damaged protest leaders’ political stature: Rashid

Minister for Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage Senator Pervaiz Rashid said that politics of sit-ins had itself damaged dharna leaders politically as the number of participants was decreasing with each passing day.

Talking to a private television channel, the minister said that Imran Khan was not clear in his demand of the resignation as “the party which came to seek the prime minister’s resignation itself tendered resignations”.

The minister said the general public has rejected the politics of agitation and sit-ins, adding there was no justification and weight in arguments of the protesters.

He said demanding and tendering resignation was a political slogan of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), expressing amazement that the PTI was ready to tender resignation from provincial assemblies except the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) which is a real manifestation of double standards.

The minister said that government and democratic forces did not want to keep the elected representatives of the people away from the Parliament, therefore, the National Assembly speaker has not accepted their resignations yet.

“The representatives having peoples’ mandate should stay in the Parliament so that they could play their due role in the Parliament for which people have given a mandate,” he noted.

The government, he added, was trying to resolve the issue of sit-ins through political means and expressed hope that it will succeed as it has the support of all political and democratic forces in the Parliament.

He expressed amazement that PTI Chief Imran Khan, in his public meetings, announced judgement on his own by himself becoming applicant, advocate and judge.

Commenting on the demands of PTI, he said, all constitutional demands of PTI have been accepted and just some technicalities and terms of references (ToRs) were yet to be finalised with regard to the announced Judicial Commission and bring reforms in the electoral system.

The minister regretted that PTI members were not participating in the meetings of the Parliamentary Electoral Reforms Committee (PERC), which has to bring improvement in the existing election system. Bringing improvement in the election system was part of the manifesto of the PML-N, he added.

He said sit-ins have damaged the national economy and depreciated Pakistani currency, adding that China was investing a huge amount in the power sector but it was getting delayed due to the sit-ins.

China, he said, being time-tested friend of Pakistan was making investment to generate around 10,400 megawatts of electricity to meet growing energy demand of the country.  On completion of the projects in three years, he said, there would be total 25,000 MW of electricity in the national grid which would be sufficient to meet the electricity need. He said irresponsible statement issued by PTI Chief Imran Khan was damaging for friendly ties of Pakistan and China.

To another question, the minister said, the civil disobedience call given by Imran Khan was rejected by all segments of the society even by its own members.