ISLAMABAD:Federal Minister for Railways and Aviation Khawaja Muhammad Saad Rafique on Wednesday said the Pakistan Railways (PR) officers from grade 17 to 22 had decided to donate their one day salary for flood affectees.
Addressing a media conference here, the Federal Minister announced that the PR had established special relief camps to ensure free supply of logistics to the monsoon rains affected areas.
Rafique said the relief camps were established at railway stations to assist the flood affected people. He urged masses to donate food items, cloths and whatever they could to the relief camps to help the people in crisis due to floods.
“Our centers are actively working and no cash donation is being received rather in kind assistance is accepted which will be sent to flood victims through district administrations,” the minister said requesting all NGOs to supply relief goods to affected areas through Pakistan Railways.
The minister also extended his condolences on the helicopter crash. He termed the incident a national tragedy and said that the entire country was aggrieved on the tragic loss.
“Pakistan Army officers and soldiers played their role in every crisis. They put their lives at risk in facilitating the masses in disasters and have also sacrificed for the defence of the country,” he said.
The minister also condemned the arrest of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) leader Nazeer Chohan and said he was arrested like a terrorist. “This is highly condemnable and such governance is unacceptable. The courts should provide speedy justice to Chohan,” he added.
Commenting on the prohibited foreign funding case verdict of the Election Commission of Pakistan, he said Imran Khan was answerable to all for receiving funds from Indian, Emirati and other foreign nationals for his party.
The important point, he said, was that why these people were donating money to PTI and for what reason. He asked if that money was legal then why these bank accounts were being hidden by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman.
He said there was no progress on ML-1 rather the entire China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was rolled back and friendly ties with China were spoiled by the Imran Khan government.
Accusing Imran Khan for adding into debt burden he said that the coalition government had to step in only to mitigate the damages done during the previous regime.
He said the parties in coalition government did not cross the red line despite political persecution. “PTI should be held accountable for prohibited funding. Imran Khan submitted fake certificates after signing. He himself is Mir Sadiq (betrayer). It is tip of the ice berg and if a through funding audit is done then there will be mind boggling revelations,” he said.
The minister said that he [Imran Khan] was Hassan Bin Sabah of this time who would feed hashish to knowledgeable people and then kill them. “It is our national responsibility to expose Imran Khan who is misleading the youth and claims himself to be pure and calls others thieves. PTI is the RSS of Pakistan,” he added.
The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) alliance parties were a political reality of this country, he said, adding, “PDM will act as a bulwark against Imran Khan’s constitution flouting efforts.”
Responding to media queries, he said the privatization of PR was not wrong but the ToRs and benchmarks should be perfect and private partners should facilitate the masses.
“We are not going to privatize PR further. We would rather like to improve the already privatized components and maintain punctuality that is being disturbed mainly due to monsoon rains,” he said.