PESHAWAR: On Thursday, Defense Minister Pervez Khattak said the federal government had neither approached the Democratic Movement of Pakistan nor planned to reach out to the opposition’s mediation coalition to defuse the country’s political tensions.
Mr Khattak, speaking to reporters during his visit to the headquarters of TransPeshawar, said the government would not back off from its transparency pledge.
Accompanied by National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser and Parliamentary Affairs Minister of State Ali Mohammad Khan, the minister said the governing party had adequate numbers to secure a majority in the Senate elections.
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He also ruled out Jahangir Khan Tareen’s nomination for a seat in the Senate. “In the Senate polls, Tareen is nowhere to be seen,” he said.
When a reporter asked him about the suspected corruption in the BRT programme, the defence minister himself got furious.
“He said, “Kill me if anyone proves that I took the ill-gotten money home.
Minister says PTI won’t back off from accountability commitment
The minister asked the reporter curtly how much he was paying to ask the question.
An official statement issued here said Mr Khattak and his delegation were briefed on BRT activities, future possible projects, followed by all administrative relations.
The delegates enjoyed the overall BRT results, according to the declaration.
On that day, Minister of Defense Khattak said that the BRT Peshawar was the country’s outstanding public transit scheme, with more than 156,000 people using it on a regular basis even during the restrictions of Covid-19.
Since the launch of the project, he said, taxpayers’ money has been spent on it in a rather thoughtful, measured and straightforward manner.
The Minister claimed that the number of BRT passengers would increase dramatically shortly after the arrival of further buses, the commencement of bus service on the remaining feeder routes and the reopening of all of the provincial capital’s educational institutions.
Mr. Khattak and his delegation later travelled from Chamkani to the Mall of Hayatabad by BRT bus with other non-protocol commuters.
During the ride, the commuters understood the pivotal role of the BRT in the modernization of the city’s transport system, the statement said.
The speaker of the National Assembly said that it was his plan to make a surprise visit to the BRT stations to check the performance of the transport system.
He said that travelling on BRT buses was no less than travelling on any international public mass transit system.
Mr Qaiser praised TransPeshawar’s role in bringing its committed and tireless energies into preserving the state-of-the-art infrastructure of public transport.
State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Mohammad Khan said the provincial government, with its determination and devotion and in the best interest of the people, had successfully initiated the BRT programme.
The bus project was not only a significant undertaking in the construction of the city’s physical infrastructure, but also as a mechanism for urban renewal and economic growth, he said.
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The BRT was planned to increase capacity and reliability compared to the traditional bus system, which was weak enough to handle the load, the State Minister said.
Meanwhile, in his home Akora Khattak region of Nowshera district, the two ministers and the NA speaker met Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Sami leader Maulana Hamidul Haq ahead of the PK-63 Nowshera by-election, which is scheduled for Feb 19.
The leader of JUI-S told reporters that he would set up a committee to restore ties between his party and the government.
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