Marriyum castigates PTI leaders for loose-cannon behaviour

ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage Marriyum Aurangzeb on Tuesday castigated the loose-cannon like behaviour of PTI leaders Naeem ul Haq and Shirin Mazari who in their tweets using an old picture of Tariq Fatemi claimed that he was accompanying the Prime Minister on his visit to China.

She gave this rebuke in a statement issued here and while talking to the media after inaugurating an education exposition.

Meanwhile, in a tweet she said that the tweets reflected the ignorance of PTI leaders who were emulating the impulsive propensity of their leader to hurl unsubstantiated allegations at the opponents.

She said the tweets were seditious, malevolent and designed to foment rift and collision between the national institutions and consign the country to perennial anarchy and instability.

The MOS advised the PTI leaders to refrain from issuing statements based on unauthentic information and in case the party could not impart training to its spokespersons for verifying facts before issuing statements, her ministry was ready to oblige them in larger national interest.

Marriyum observed that the PTI leaders used an old footage to establish the authenticity of a false claim and now after realizing their mistake one of the spokesperson had deleted the same from the tweet.

Reacting to the speech by Shah Mahmood Qureshi in the Assembly on the basis of a false information regarding Tariq Fatemi's visit to China, she said Shah Mahmood Qureshi was a responsible, dignified and a seasoned politician and therefore it was untenable as to how he could he commit such an indiscretion? She expressed the hope that in view of the reality having come to light, Shah Mahmood Qureshi would review and withdraw his statement in the Assembly.

Marriyum said being a senior politician, Shah Mahmood Qureshi should rectify the behavior of the party members to avoid the embarrassment of blindly believing in their fabricated lies.

The MOS said in future if Shah Mahmood Qureshi needed any authentic information about the government, she was ready to help him.

Addressing an education expo she said the government was investing in human resource development as it was vital for the success of mega projects such as CPEC. Under the umbrella of PM Youth program, several projects had been started for the education, skill enhancement and professional development of the youth, she added.

She said quality education was the main component of PM's education reforms programme in which major thrust was on training of the teachers. She said a supplementary grant of Rs 3 billion had been released in order to equip all the public sector schools in Islamabad with modern facilities. She said under the reforms programme, Montessori classes had been introduced and buses had been provided to the educational institutions.

The minister said the provincial governments were also giving special attention to education and health sectors. She said the textbooks of Punjab had been digitalized in order to ensure easy access to them, adding the day was not far when Pakistan would emerge as a healthy and educated country on the world map.

Marriyum Aurangzeb said the efforts of the government were needed to be supplemented by the private sector which was under obligation to provide enabling environment to students so that they could succeed in their future endeavours.

The minister of state appreciated the media group for organizing the education exposition for the benefit of students, parents and teachers of the twin-cities. Earlier, the minister inaugurated the exposition and visited different stalls.