Composite dialogue anytime soon: Federal Minister for Information hopes

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdaus Ashiq Awan has said that Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani's visit to India will lead to resumption of composite dialogue between the two neighbouring countries.
"Although, the Prime Minister's visit is only to witness semi final match between Pakistan and India at Mohali, however the cricket diplomacy, at the time when secretary level meetings have already started, could pave way for the resumption of composite dialogue", the minister said in an exclusive interview with Business Recorder during her visit to the Recorder House here on Sunday.
Earlier, the information minister visited Recorder House and had meeting with Wamiq A. Zuberi, Editor Business Recorder. The Secretary Information Taimur Azmat Usman was also present on this occasion.
The Information Minister said that Pakistan appreciates the gesture extended by the Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.
"The agenda for the Prime Minister Gilani's visit to India has so far not been finalised but Pakistan is willing to start the composite dialogue with India to address key issues. Presently the secretary level negotiations are being held with India and in the second phase the foreign minister will visit neighbouring country to finalise a road map for high level and composite dialogues, which would be helpful to resolve common issues of two neighbouring countries", she said.
Both the countries are facing similar challenges of hunger, poverty, unemployment and terrorism and dialogue is the only way forward to address these issues.
She said that during the SAARC summit in Bhutan in 2010, both the leaders had agreed that their countries were facing similar challenges and concurred that the dialogue was the only way forward.
"We are confident that the gesture shown by the Indian Prime Minister and commitment of our Prime Minister will help us to really engage ourselves on the diplomatic front for resumption of composite dialogues", she added.
Responding to a question on Karachi situation, she said that targeted killing in Karachi is a serious issue and government is taking several steps to improve law and order situation.
Although this is the responsibility of provincial government, however the federal government has taken strict notice of poor law and order situation in Karachi as well as in Balochistan and the issue is on the agenda of cabinet meeting to discuss concrete steps for improving law and order situation in these two provinces.
The minister said that the PPP, MQM and ANP are coalition partners in the Sindh Province and these political parties have to sit together to find a solution of this issue. "The provincial government is capable of addressing the issue with the support of all coalition partners, however, the federal government is ready to provide any assistance to address the issue whenever they need", she added.
On another question the minister said that the country's economic condition is not ideal. The government will be presenting next budget in a very tough economic situation.
She was expecting that all political parties would play their constitutional role during budget session, keeping in view the tough economic situation. "We have majority in the parliament and hopefully there would be no difficulty in passing the budget by the parliament", she added.
Regarding energy crisis, she said the previous government capped petroleum prices for political gains. The recent raise in oil prices in the international market added more difficulties for the present government resulted in a serious circular debt issue. The government is still paying Rs 5 billion per month subsidy on petroleum products.
She said the government has introduced administrative reforms to reduce line losses of power companies.
She pointed out that the government has added 2,200 megawatts to the national grid during last three years and 1800 MW more power will be added to the system in next six months. The Prime Minister will soon perform the ground-breaking of Bhasha Diamer Dam for producing hydel energy.
On the other hand, the government has also planned to generate 5,000 MW of electricity through Thar coal in next two years. The government is also considering to adopt other power generation resources including wind and solar energy.
She said that the country is also facing gas shortage issues and in this regard the government has signed Pak-Iran and Pak-Turkmenistan gas pipeline projects. The government is also engaged in talking with Qatar and Kuwait to get natural gas for power generation.
She termed PIA, Pakistan Steel, Pakistan Railways and other government owned entities a white elephant, as federal government is still spending billions of rupees annually to run these institutions. "The federal government is still paying Rs 182 billion subsidy to PEPCO", she informed.
Restructuring of these entities has already been initiated by government and some more decisions will be announced in the next budget. Proper and transparent privatisation at better price or to run through public-private partnership is the best solution of these government entities, adding, in the past, privatisation process was not transparent and national assets were sold at low prices.
Talking about the government borrowing from banking sector, she said that government has realised its responsibility and borrowing has been reduced by 79 percent to Rs 83 billion during this year as compared to Rs 482 billion in last fiscal year.
Replying a question relating to fuel price, she said that government wants to end subsidies phase wise and it is still paying Rs 5 billion monthly subsidy on petroleum products. "Any increase on intentional market will be passed on toward general masses to reduce fiscal deficit," she added.
RGST has been politicised, despite the fact that a strong tax system is required to continue subsidies on various food and non-food items. Government is unable to continue subsidy culture without improvement in tax system.
Not only political parties but media also is responsible for delay of RGST; she urged political parties to support RGST in the larger interest of country.
Undocumented economy has created problems on all fronts, resulted in shortfall in revenue and high fiscal deficit, while now efforts for a documented economy are being politicised, she said and added the agricultural tax is a provincial matter and they can handle it in a proper manner to generate more revenue.