Cabinet backs exemplary punishment for culprits of Sialkot lynching: Fawad

Islamabad: The federal cabinet, which met in the federal capital on Tuesday under the chair of Prime Minister Imran Khan, condemned the Sialkot incident with a resolve to take all culprits to task.    

This was disclosed by Federal Minister for Information and Broadctasing Chauhdry Fawad Hussain who was briefing media persons about the decisions of the cabinet.

"The state is responsible to provide protection to every citizen belonging to minority communities and we adhere to this principle," the information minister said.

He said violence against Muslims took place every now and then in India and no one bothered, but in Pakistan the entire nation stands unified against such acts, the information minister said.

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain on Tuesday said the opposition was committing ‘political suicide’ by participating in a campaign launched by some elements against provision of voting rights to the overseas Pakistanis.

“It appears that only the PTI [Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf] is responsible for welfare of the overseas Pakistanis, but the fact is that entire diaspora is not associated with the party,” the minister said while talking to the media persons after meeting of the Federal Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan.

He said it was beyond his comprehension that the Pakistan Peoples Party and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz were taking part in a campaign launched to deny right of vote to ten million expats whose families lived in Pakistan.
The move could also antagonize the expats, he added.

The minister said almost entire family of Nawaz Sharif was also abroad and Hassan and Husain Nawaz might have torn Pakistani passport, but they would get opportunity to vote for their father’s party if expats were given voting right.

-- Minister defends EVM --

He said the cabinet was briefed over Electronic Voting Machine (EVM), saying the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) should get its own satisfaction over the use of EVMs. "It's objectionable to criticise the EVM without understanding it's mechanism."

Hussian said the only objective of introducing EVM is to hold transparent elections in the country. 

-- Inflation --

The minister said the government is unable to subsidise everything, claiming the weekly inflation has rercorded 0.48 per cent reduction.

"We (the government) hope the Sindh government will take steps to bring down inflation in Karachi and Hayderabad."

"The price of sugar is expected to go down in days to come," the minister said, sugar is available at Rs90 throughout the country, except for Karachi and Islamabad.

Husain further said the price of a sack of 20kg wheat is "stable across the country at Rs1,100"-- except for Karachi and Hyderabad.