LAHORE, Dec 18 (APP): Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood Saturday said that visit of foreign ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to Islamabad to attend the conference on Afghanistan was an evidence of the fact that Pakistan was playing a leading and constructive role in Afghanistan situation.
Addressing a press conference here, he said an important conference of OIC foreign ministers was being hosted by Islamabad to discuss in detail Afghanistan’s future and economic stability to avoid any food or humanitarian crisis there.
Prime minister Imran Khan is leading the Muslim countries on the matter of Afghanistan as the PTI government is committed to helping out Afghanistan towards a stable and economically stable country. He said the government was making efforts to seek attention of the international community to help resolve the challenges of Afghanistan for durable economic stability in the region.
Shafqat Mahmood said it was very unfortunate that those involved in corruption of billions of rupees and facing charges in the courts, were also claiming to lead the country.
He said cases of corruption against Shehbaz Sharif were unique in the country’s history as he allegedly got opened bank accounts in the name of his employees and made transactions of billions of rupees through those accounts. Evidence was also there that that money was later transferred to personal accounts of Shehbaz Sharif and Hamza Shehbaz.
These ‘benamidar’ accounts were also used for money laundering by the members of Sharif family (Shehbaz Sharif and Hamza Shehbaz), he added.
Similarly, he said that Nawaz Sharif also could not present money trail of multi-billion apartments in London. He said Asif Ali Zardari is also facing courts over alleged money laundering and still they claim to be leaders of the nation.
A case against Maryam Nawaz was also pending in the court but she was using delaying tactics to linger on the case proceedings, he added.
He said that pendency of cases in the courts showed that there was complexity in country’s legal system and the PTI led government was determined to ensure a speedy justice system available with ease to a common man.
Shafqat Mahmood said that the government was making serious efforts to solve the problems of provincial metropolis and in this connection a meeting of the District Coordination Committee was held on Saturday which was briefed about the steps to tackle smog, waste management, and other problems of the city.
He said Lahore Waste Management Company was responsible for cleanliness of the city and all-out resources were being extended to them to ensure cleanliness arrangements.
More machinery for LWMC would be handed over to the company in a few days whereas 1,000 new recruitments had been made to address the shortage of staff issue.
To a question, the minister said that inflation was an international phenomenon and prices of commodities had increased particularly after Covid-19; however, despite difficult circumstances, the government’s prudent policies were producing desired results as country’s exports had increased and local production was boosting.