Cabinet decides to send medical aid to war-torn Gaza

Federal cabinet Tuesday decided to send medical aid to Palestine on humanitarian grounds in view of the medical emergency faced by the Palestinians as a result of Israeli aggression.

The meeting of federal cabinet was held in Islamabad today (Tuesday) with Prime Minister Imran Khan in the chair.

Later briefing the media persons about the decisions taken in the cabinet meeting, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhary Fawad Hussain said Prime Minister Imran Khan has provided leadership to the Muslim Ummah from day one on the Palestine issue.

He said that Pakistan had adopted a clear and unambiguous stance on the Palestine issue for which the Palestinian leaders had thanked their Pakistani counterparts. The Information Minister said the Palestinian leadership also acknowledges Pakistan's firm stance on the matter. Chaudhary Fawad Hussain said the nation will observe solidarity day with the Palestinians on Friday.

Fawad reiterated that probe into the Rawalpindi Ring Road (RRR) project scam showed that Prime Minister Imran Khan was serious in accountability.

“This could have never been possible under the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) or Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) governments, which were totally insensitive to the corruption scandals,” he recalled.

He said the RRR project was first conceived in 2017, the aim of which was to divert traffic from Rawalpindi city roads in order to prevent road congestion. “In 2018, its initial alignment was done; then in 2019 an engineer wrote a letter to Prime Minister Imran in which he brought to his notice that road’s alignment had been changed to mint millions of rupees,” the federal minister said, and added, “Following which, PM Imran ordered inquiry into it.”

Fawad further said electoral reforms were required if political parties were to ensure free and transparent elections. “Electronic voting machines were need of the hour in the present circumstances,” he emphasised.

He said both PPP and PML-N were not making their position clear on their opposition to giving overseas Pakistanis the right to vote.

At the same time, however, Fawad made it clear that it was the PTI government’s resolve to give the right to vote to Pakistanis living abroad.

Referring to electoral reforms, the Information Minister said the government is committed to introducing electronic voting machines to ensure transparency in elections and give right of vote to overseas Pakistanis.

He regretted that the opposition is not serious in electoral reforms and the PML-N and the PPP have not made their position clear on the right to franchise to overseas Pakistanis.

The Minister said PTI government aims to revitalize the agriculture sector through provision of 110 billion rupees in next three years. He said in this regard, Ministry of National Food Security & Research has provided various recommendations for the development of livestock sector.

The Minister said mobile phone users have been increased to 180 million while users of cellular network have risen to 100 million.