Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed on Saturday said that amendments to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Ordinance and changes in the 18th Constitutional Amendment will take “time”,
Addressing a press conference at the Railways Headquarters here on Saturday, he said he was against amendments or alterations to the NAB Ordinance or the 18th Amendment.
He said that talks with the opposition for amendments to the NAB Ordinance and the 18th Amendment were in progress; however, he added, it would be a joke [with the country] if the demands of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) were accepted.
He said that the draft of amendments to the NAB Ordinance, available to various people, was a fake document, adding that nothing was made public in this regard so far.
He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan had introduced a professional team in the Ministry of Information, adding that Shibli Faraz would play on the screen as the information minister while Asim Saleem Bajwa would act behind the screen as an adviser to the prime minister.
The railways minister claimed that the prime minister would never spare mafias active in loan, sugar, flour and Iindependent Power Producers (IPPs) sectors and he would fight a legal decisive war against them who had looted the national exchequer.
He alleged that sugar, flour and IPPs mafias remained part of every cabinet and they tried to bribe the governments for their vested interests.
To a question, he said that Shehbaz Sharif wanted to flee again, taking plea that the operation of Nawaz Sharif had been postponed due to coronavirus and he wanted to be with his brother.
Responding to a question about former special assistant to the prime minister on information Firdous Ashiq Awan, he said she would now show up at the media from time to time, adding that he had no issue with anyone in the government.
About Railways, the minister said that train operations could be restored in 24 hours if the prime minister ordered for it. He said that the PR would be able to pay salaries to its employees only for the next month, adding that financial help would be required for paying the salaries after that. He said that due to the suspension of trains, the railways had to bear Rs 5 billion deficit per month.
He said that if train operations were restored, the number of passengers would have to be cut to half of the capacity to protect them from the virus, which would also be a big loss for the department. “I was planning to eradicate Rs 34 billion deficit of the Railways, but now it will be impossible,” he added.
