Tag: Prime Minister Imran Khan

  • Reham slams govt for ‘denying’ Diet Coke to Maryam Nawaz

    Reham slams govt for ‘denying’ Diet Coke to Maryam Nawaz

    Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan’s former wife Reham Khan has lashed out at her former husband over the government’s restrictions on “Maryam Nawaz’s Diet Coke”, Pakistan Today reported.

    According to the details, Reham in a video statement criticised the governmetn and said, “The Sharif family is a very resilient family. Your leader [Imran Khan] cannot spend even a single day in jail”, adding it would be very difficult if your leader [Imran Khan] is stopped from consuming Coke in jail.”

    “You have placed restrictions on her Diet Coke today. Tomorrow if you have to spend a day in jail, you may not be served any Coke, Pepsi or Seven-up,” she added.

    Reflecting on the events of 2014, Reham said what was happening today on the Pakistani political landscape was ‘karma’. She said Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman was doing the same things—dharna, long march, shutterdowns, protests—which Imran did in 2014.

    While commenting on statements by the Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) leader and Sheikh Rasheed, Reham said, “The betrayal and disloyalty that you have carried out with people, the same is happening (with you now). The same people, with whom you formed your small majority, are threatening you. They are not Reham Khan”.

    She further said, “Your allies are also going to leave you. Ch Pervez Elahi was advising you to let Nawaz go abroad but you did not respond. You were disloyal to others in the past and now your people are going to be unfaithful to you.”

    “What you (Imran) did to him in Punjab by bringing Buzdar. Now it’s time for Pervez Elahi’s turn.”

  • Asad Umar returns to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s cabinet

    Asad Umar returns to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s cabinet

    Former federal minister for finance Asad Umar, who was sacked for poor performance, on Monday was re-inducted to Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan’s cabinet as the minister for planning, development and reforms.

    According to Special Assistant to the PM for Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms Khusro Bakhtiar was handed the petroleum portfolio instead, which was earlier held by Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan.

    “A notification, in this regard, will soon be issued,” she tweeted.

    In April this year, hours after Umar was shown the door, the former finance minister had said that he was removed by the premier because of his “performance” at the post in the last eight months.

    The ex-federal finance minister, who is a close aide of PM Imran, had also said that he wasn’t disappointed over the decision. “Since taking the job, I’ve worked my socks off, even my family says I’m burn out.”

    Umar had further said that as soon as he was told to leave his post his stress levels nose-dived. “You can’t imagined how relaxed I am right now.”

    On another query that if his stint as the finance minister would be deemed a failure, Umar had said he would leave that for time to decide. He was replaced by Adviser to the PM on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh.

  • ‘I am a dharna expert’: Prime minister belittles Fazl’s Azadi March

    ‘I am a dharna expert’: Prime minister belittles Fazl’s Azadi March

    Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan on Monday called himself a “dharna [sit-in] expert” as he boasted of his 126-day lockdown of the federal capital from 2014 and belittled that of Maulana Fazlur Rehman-led Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) which ended within two weeks.

    Addressing the groundbreaking of the Hazara Motorway Phase II in Havelian, the premier called JUI-F’s 14-day sit-in a “circus” and added that the protesters could not even stay for a month in the capital.

    He reiterated that would not spare “a single corrupt person” in the country no matter how they tried to “blackmail” the government and added that he “did not care about votes, but feared God and the hereafter”. “My message [to all my opponents] is that my God has trained me for challenges. I know how to win and how to face defeat. And I know how to stand back up after I have been defeated.”

    Warning opposition leaders against ganging up on him, the premier also trained guns at his political nemeses, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Shehbaz Sharif and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari.

    While PM Imran said that Shehbaz was “trying to be Nelson Mandela” — former South African president and peace activist who spent 27 years in prison due to his political struggle — he also mimicked Bilawal in an attempt to troll the PPP chief for his rainwater gaffe.

    “When it rains, water pours down. When it rains more, more water pours down.”

    WATCH VIDEO:

    “Bilawal’s theory shocked even the most remarkable scientists like Einstein,” the premier said further and assereted that the PPP chairman claimed to be a liberal “but he was liberally corrupt”.

    BILAWAL STRIKES BACK:

    It wasn’t later that Bilawal reacted to PM Imran’s remarks in a tweet.

    He said that he was neither liberal nor corrupt or a hypocrite. “I am a visionary and progressionist who has been in politics for more than a year,” he said, adding that the premier was a 70-year-old who had been exercising “selected” politics for more than 20 years.

    “Imran Khan’s identity by U-turns, hypocrisy and being a puppet,” Bilawal wrote.

  • ‘Imran’s best interests at heart,’ says Elahi amid Punjab chief ministership rumours

    ‘Imran’s best interests at heart,’ says Elahi amid Punjab chief ministership rumours

    Amid rumours that Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) leader and Punjab Assembly speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi “will soon be replacing Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Usman Buzdar” as the provincial cheif executive, the former has clarified his statements that made headlines for criticising Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan.

    During an interview, Elahi had last week said that PM Imran should let former premier Nawaz Sharif fly out of the country since he was gravely ill. His remarks had come while the Imran-led government, before the Lahore High Court (LHC) ruling that allowed Nawaz to travel abroad, had decided to not let the former premier travel abroad without paying a whopping Rs7 billion in indemnity bonds.

    “Whatever I said about Nawaz was for Imran Khan’s own good,” Elahi said Monday as he clarified that no one could create a misunderstanding between his party and the government.

    Elahi also said that he had contacted Maulana Fazlur Rehman to save the country from descending into political chaos.

    He was part of the government’s negotiating committee that held talks with Fazl when the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief brought thousands of protesters to the H-9 venue in Islamabad and demanded PM Imran’s resignation.

    Though Defence Minister Pervaiz Khattak was heading the committee, Elahi and his cousin, Chaudhry Shujaat, held talks with the JUI-F chief during the protest to present the government’s demands.

  • Imran’s adviser all praise for PML-N; says previous govt’s policies boosted economy

    Adviser to Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan on Commerce, Abdul Razak Dawood, has given the credit of Pakistan’s improved rating in World Bank’s (WB) Ease of Doing Business Index to the previous Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government and its good policies.

    Pakistan has jumped up 28 places on the index and secured a place among the top 10 countries with the most improved business climate — a development that will greatly improve its image abroad.

    Pakistan carried out six reforms that helped improving its ranking from 136 to 108, according to the WB’s annual flagship report, ‘Ease of Doing Business 2020’, released last month. It turned out to be the sixth global reformer and first in South Asia that brought ease in doing business in the past one year.

    Praising the PML-N in what is being termed as challenging his own premier’s policy statement, Dawood has said that it was the previous government’s good policies that helped the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) carry out the said reforms.

    “Ease of doing busniess started improving under the previous government and their efforts helped us make even better. It’s not just us… look how the power crisis has been overcome. All of it wasn’t done within a single year,” he can be heard as saying in a video doing rounds over the internet.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    According to The Express Tribune, the WB monitors a country’s business related regulations on 10 benchmarks that are as broad as from starting a business, to getting electricity connection, securing construction permits, paying taxes, dispute resolution, business insolvency and protecting minority shareholders’ rights. All these areas are closely looked at by the global investors before they take decisions on making investment.

    The report measures how close each economy is to the best global practices in business regulations.

    On the measure of absolute progress towards best practices, Pakistan has improved the score to 61 from 55, suggesting the country did some remarkable work this time around and built on the reforms introduced in the previous year as well.

    International investors consult the report and the Global Competitiveness Index of the World Economic Forum before taking decisions on investment plans.

    While India remained top among South Asian nations, up 14 spots to 63, Pakistan also made a mark by climbing 28 positions and securing a place among the top 10 global business climate reformers and improving 28 positions in a year.

    “This rise is significant and made possible by collective and coordinated actions of the federal government and provincial governments of Sindh and Punjab over the past year,” said the WB Country Director for Pakistan Illango Patchamuthu.

  • PM Imran’s weekend break: what should he be doing?

    PM Imran’s weekend break: what should he be doing?

    Prime Minister Imran Khan has decided to take a mini-break for the first time since he assumed office.

    According to reports, the PM has suspended his official and party engagements for two days, (Saturday and Sunday) and will be spending the weekend with his family members at his Bani Gala residence in Islamabad.

    The PM will take a break from his work and no government official or party members will meet the premier, neither will he chair any meeting this weekend. PM Imran often chairs Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) meetings at his Bani Gala residence on the weekends as well as receives the party leaders and government officials there.

    Considering that PM Imran is taking the weekend off, here are five things The Current recommends he does to make the most of his time off:

    1. Sleep – Is a weekend off really a weekend off unless you sleep at least 16 hours?
    2. Skype with his sons who are in London
    3. Catch up on Pakistani dramas – He must binge-watch Meray Paas Tum Ho and Alif, which starres his fav actor Hamza Ali Abbasi. After all they are creating quite a stir.
    4. Eat – We’ve heard that the PM is quite fond of haleem. The cooks in Banigala should get going on making his fav dish.
    5. Reading – What better way to spend the weekend morning soaking up the winter sun and reading That Will Never Work by Marc Randolph.
  • I hold no grudge against Nawaz, his health more important than politics: Imran

    I hold no grudge against Nawaz, his health more important than politics: Imran

    Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has said that he holds no grudge against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif and that the ailing former premier’s health is more important than politics.

    According to The Express Tribune, presiding over a meeting of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) core committee on Friday, PM Imran said his government had facilitated the Sharif family patriarch at every forum on humanitarian grounds and had also come up with a legal option to strike his name off the Exit Control List (ECL).

    The statement came a day after PML-N chief Shehbaz Sharif warned that he would hold Imran responsible if anything happened to his brother as his administration was “dilly-dallying on the removal of Nawaz’s name from the no-fly list”.

    The premier has now said the government had no issues if the Sharif family opted to approach the court instead of furnishing an indemnity bond for the removal of Nawaz’s name from the ECL. However, he regretted that the Sharif family was “playing politics” on the 69-year-old politician’s health.

    He noted that Nawaz’s health was deteriorating and his family’s first priority should be to take him abroad for treatment instead of wrangling over the issue of the indemnity bond.

    Participants of the PTI’s core committee meeting also decided to take legal action against Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman for criticising state institutions during his 14-day-long sit-in in the federal capital.

  • VIDEO: PTI’s ally hits out at PM, says govt talking about humanity and asking for money

    VIDEO: PTI’s ally hits out at PM, says govt talking about humanity and asking for money

    Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, Speaker Punjab Assembly, and ally of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) government has said that the government should not talk about money if it is talking about humanity in the case of Nawaz Sharif.

    Talking in Dunya News program” Nuqta-e-Nazar,” Pervaiz Elahi said that all the properties of Nawaz have been transferred to his children and encouraged the government not to do politics on such sensitive matters and let former premier leave the country.

    Elahi said that Sharif family is also questioning why they should give any guarantee, adding that “Nawaz has been granted bail by the courts so why should he give guarantee to the government if he wants to leave for London?”

    It is pertinent to note that the federal cabinet on Tuesday granted “conditional” approval to remove Nawaz’s name from the ECL [Exit Control List].

    The government has asked the Sharif Family to pay Rs7 billion as surety bonds — equivalent to the fines imposed on him by an accountability court in two corruption cases Al-Azizia Steel Mills and Avenfield properties — in which PML-N supremo was convicted.

    Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had categorically rejected the conditional offer of the government and have approached the court to seek the removal of former prime minister’s name from the no-fly list.

    Watch Video:

  • Imran criticises himself ‘for not running country right’

    Imran criticises himself ‘for not running country right’

    In what appears to be criticism for his own government, Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has said the manner in which Pakistan is being run, cannot lead to progress and the country will face severe financial difficulties if steps are not taken to enhance the tax revenue.

    According to The News, the premier on Wednesday took the top hierarchy of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) into confidence over the proposed reforms plan for converting it into the Pakistan Revenue Authority (PRA) and assured them that no action plan would be implemented without consultations.

    PM Imran urged the officers to speak out and said that people will be eager to pay tax if they are assured that their money will be spent on public welfare instead of lavish lifestyle of rulers.

    He said currently, the government has no money to spend on masses as it inherited record deficit and instructed the FBR officials to take measures to restore the confidence of the business community by addressing its grievances regarding the tax machinery.

    The premier said that the collection of Rs8 trillion tax was not difficult if all stakeholders considered it their national responsibility and the country could not run on the old pattern as his government had inherited the biggest financial deficit and current account deficit.

    “Half of the tax collection in the first year was spent on debt servicing,” he said and added that Pakistan had huge potential in terms of its young population. “If they [the youth] are provided with opportunities, the country can progress on the path of prosperity.”

  • Shaikh Rasheed wanted Nawaz’s name off the no fly list

    Shaikh Rasheed wanted Nawaz’s name off the no fly list

    Even though Nawaz Sharif has rejected the conditional leave offer made by the government, prior to the offer and during a federal cabinet meeting on Tuesday, many ministers were against letting Nawaz go.

    RELATED: Govt allows Nawaz to travel abroad, for four weeks only

    The meeting was headed by Prime Minister Khan and lasted for four hours. According to GEO News, several ministers opposed letting Nawaz leave the country. They included Fawad Chaudhry and Faisal Vawda, who have publicly spoken against the move as well. They were joined by Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs Ali Amin Gandapur and Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari.

    But some ministers said that Nawaz’s name should be pulled off the no fly list, including Railways Minister Shaikh Rasheed.

    In an interview to ARY News Shaikh Rasheed said that Nawaz should take the deal and leave the country and if he doesn’t, he is just playing politics.

    Shaikh Rasheed’s comments on ARY News