Govt done away with several bad traditions: Pervaiz

• Minister says PPP, PML-Q govts misused secret fund created with taxpayers’ money for political, personal, party benefits

Federal Minister for Information Senator Pervaiz Rashid on Monday said the present government had done away with several bad traditions of the past, including the secret fund maintained by the Information Ministry.

Speaking in a meeting of Senate’s Standing Committee on Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage chaired by Kamil Ali Agha, the minister said the Pakistan People’s Party and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid governments had misused the secret fund created with taxpayers’ money for political, personal and party benefits.

The present government, he said, believed in transparency and was ready to face accountability for its three years’ rule.

Rashid said that during previous governments, incompetent persons had been appointed in the Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage which had ruined the institutions and caused several problems for the incumbent government.

Rashid said his ministry would not only provide details of the appointments made in state-owned Pakistan Television (PTV) during the past three years, but also the record of appointments made over ten years by the PPP and PML-Q governments for comparison. He said he respected the opinion of Senator Kamil Ali Agha, but the government inherited a certain culture; however, it was ready to provide details of the expenditures of the Press Information Department (PID) not only for the past three months but for the past three years.

Rashid however said it would be an injustice to examine the details of PID’s expenditures of the past three years only, adding that the details of the department’s expenditures during the two previous governments should also be scrutinised.