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ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet has decided to constitute “threat committees” in provinces, where Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) is in power, to cut down on the excessive security spending of important personalities.
Addressing a post-Cabinet press conference in Islamabad today (Tuesday), Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry has asserted that Prime Minister Imran Khan had raised a vital point that the public should be taken into confidence about where their tax money is being spent.
“The prospective threat committees – to be formed in ICT, KP, Punjab, Gilgit-Baltistan and AJK – will individually assess threats and security will be arranged accordingly,” he said, asserting that the move would help the government save millions of rupees.
Giving details of the expenditure on excessive protocols and security duties, Fawad said that the federal cabinet was on the top with minimum spending on it, while the major quantum of the amount was being spent on the judiciary for security purposes.
“Islamabad police had deployed 762 police personnel for security of the president, the prime minister, ministers, advisers and special assistants while 14 Rangers and FC personnel were also on duty for the purpose,” he added,
He informed that a total of Rs700 million were being spent under the aforementioned head. On the contrary, he said 373 police personnel were deployed for security of judges in Islamabad with spending of Rs287m.
The Information Minister said the attorney general and the law minister will also speak to judiciary on the matter because security of judges was also paramount to the government.
Fawad Chaudhry also announced that the cabinet also approved country’s first National Cyber Security Policy. “Recently we saw Pegasus malware and now the world is heading towards cyber wars. In that connection, the IT ministry has given its first policy for our data protection. The policy has two areas — cyber security and cyber offences,” he added.
He also said the government had paid dues to media houses but some institutions were still not paying their employees.
During the presser, he underlined that the government had also decided that the Investment Board will be empowered to do away with outdated laws and take substantive measures for ease of doing business.
“The strategy formulation for new framework of MoUs on foreign investment has been approved”, he said, adding that Pakistan recently suffered a huge financial setback in the Reko Diq case and the minister blamed former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry for his “role” that inflicted a huge loss to the country.
He said the cabinet also asked the CDA to implement court orders in land-related cases, adding that a committee had also been formed to review matters in this regard.
Chaudhry said the government would now also sanction advertisements to the digital media. “I had written a letter to the Finance Ministry in 2018, informing them that Rs3-4 billion was being spent on digital ads at the time, which has now increased to Rs25 billion,” he added.
