ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on Monday again warned the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), the opposition 11-parties alliance, to review their decisions as Prime Minister Imran Khan will bring such tough laws, following Senate elections after which generations of corrupt and money launders will not get a two-third majority in the upper house.

Rashid, while talking to media persons outside the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA), said that the opposition parties need to review their decisions. However, he also said that he was seeing the PDM leaders' participation in the upcoming Senate election. Participation of opposition parties in the Senate election would be a good sign as solution of problems come from the assemblies, he said.

The interior minister said that the opposition was pushing their voters to death, while important personalities of every party were living abroad. He urged the opposition to stop public gathering in the current coronavirus situation in the country.

He said that there were threats to lives of some 20 politicians including chief of his own faction and president of PDM Maulana Fazlur Rehman. The government has already informed politicians who were facing threats to their lives, he said, adding that some of these politicians have already survived attacks on their lives in the past.

About former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, he said that there is no army chief and judge with whom the Sharif did not have tension but he gets nothing. Sharif had himself buried his politics, he added. He said that it was a good sign that the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had asked the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for holding of by-elections.

To a question that the United Kingdom (UK) and Saudi Arabia have called off their flight operations due to spread of the COVID-19, he said that he will suggest to Prime Minister Imran Khan and the relevant authorities to stop its flights operation to and from London.

Answering another question, the minister said a befitting response will be given to India if it goes for any misadventure. Pakistan wants peace, but it will never compromise on its sovereignty.

The minister said that there are serious threats against the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) but due to day and night efforts of the Pakistan army and the law enforcement agencies the threats were thwarted.

He said that 40 to 45 percent decline had been recorded in the number of deaths in terror incidents, and only two suicide attacks occurred in the country during the current year. Funds would be allocated to the NACTA to further improve its system.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020

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