PPP govt makes remarkable achievements

PESHAWAR: Federal Minister for Information Firdous Ashiq Awan said on Saturday that the PPP-led government had made remarkable achievements by passage of the 18th and 19th Constitutional Amendments, which were even not achieved by the past governments enjoying two-third majority in the parliament.

Addressing a news conference here at Peshawar Press Club, Dr Firdous said that through the devolution of eight ministries, the right of provinces on their resources had been recognized.

She was flanked by President PPP, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Provincial Minister for Health, Syed Zahir Ali Shah and Provincial Minister for Information, Mian Iftikhar Hussein.

The federal minister said that the provinces were earlier given only administrative autonomy while under the 18th Constitutional Amendment, they had also been granted economic autonomy.

She said that President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani were following the policy of reconciliation and had overcome maximum challenges by taking their coalition partners along. She hoped that the reconciliatory politics would help bring democratic stability in the country.

Dr Firdous said that the PPP government believed in strengthening of the state institutions and had achieved the objective. The federal minister said that the country was facing two main challenges of terrorism and energy crisis and attributed the problems of unemployment and price-hike to international economic recession.

She said that after coming into power, the government inherited the challenges of terrorism and military operation in Swat followed by devastating floods that washed away the existing infrastructure which enhanced the economic woes of people.Dr Firdous said that the PPP is proud of its coalition partners.

Referring to the devolution plan, she said the energy resources which were a federal domain had now been transferred to the provinces. She said that the objective of the devolution plan was to strengthen the federating units.It was now the responsibility of provinces to enhance their capacity and work for the resolution of the people's problems.

The federal minister said that foreign investment and remittances have had a record increase while the exports have also soared. She said that foreign exchange reserves have jumped and now the benefits of these successes would trickle down the common man.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011