w. we've got some tips for your bucket list. that's hard for. me and some great cultural memorials to. we go. to school and college years of prime minister mon khan present for you during the fight for block a song you know the public's not buying it after a very long time involved does nor corruption scandal in the fall put out a deal is there a parallel justice system in your country in next week's month you would see the number of missing persons really busy do you think it's acceptable to intimidate the press i see no problem with the freedom of expression opposition parties in pakistan have been upping the pressure on prime minister imraan khan in a series of recent mass protests they say he's

a puppet of the military and has mismanaged the economy as inflation squire is also concerned about the state of human rights and press freedom my guest this week from islamabad this fall why choudhary pakistani minister for science and technology what has his government to achieve who's calling the shots in pakistan. mr fowle chattery welcomes a conflict zone thank you for having me it's halfway through your government's charm and there is rising anger at high inflation and poor economic prospects the opposition has united they say that your prime minister imran khan that he is incapable and that he is merely a puppet of the military is he. well frankly all the positions meant in the same line of just a non-serious argument i believe. this 2 years of prime minister non-con

has actually done that died for baucus at the time when the whole world is actually struggling of the buggers on is probably the only conclude that has shown remarkable i would say that we have achieved the success that nor the country could have even imagined that by this onward we have we have successfully. we have maintained economic stability. and anything that you can imagine you know the best case scenario that you can attribute to any country in the baucus on is a is for doubt and that's and the word has actually it can only focus on for that but mr minister i'd like to ask you because let's look at the seriousness of the argument in fact let's look at the management of the pandemic on march 22nd the prime minister told the nation that the government would not institute

a sweeping lockdown less than 24 hours later the military announced that the army would oversee a shutdown and they have been orchestrating the response ever since so who's calling the shots. that's that actually is not true the 1st focus on the going to 6 february i think bugs on was was i would say among the very nations that initiated. steps to secure its borders and ports in february 2nd week we actually placed all over protocols at the airports the word started a new body lead sic in the. refereeing there was no concept of a complete block known in pakistan and prime minister this is from day one and that is the reason that in pakistan we never had complete lockdown we only had partially lockdowns and actually very well managed to lock those. military is

part of the government and we are actually the police is of the government have the full support of the army so pockets i mean prime minister called the short and pakistan army sports mr minister you know there are members former members of the military who don't agree with that assessment in fact and i just like to turn to the statements of a retired general who says the government in fact left a big gap in its handling of the coronavirus the army has tried to fill that gap there was no choice so in other words he's saying the handling of the coronavirus crisis one of one of the greatest challenges of the past decades and the civilian government could not rise to meet it who said this this is a retired general who was quoted by the financial times on april 25th 2020. m and then i retired and unsolicited and looking on the condition of anonymity. no this you see obviously

a sort of nicholas statement so all business any oil any retired general is just like any other citizen or baucus on we don't know his political affiliation but forget about what daughter died during the loader and want to see is the question is that what are the results we have we stand today the government of the producers or not the fact is a buck is on is it has been appreciated by everyone on the bill would have and so it's not it's relevant who said what so you have to see the consequences and design sort of policies and by this improved success and i have to give greater to the prime minister's policies and certainly me pretty supported by the son prime ministers because part of the government let's move from the coronavirus crisis to the management of pakistan's economy was started a little bit earlier that the economy was doing very well but you know the assessment of the world bank is that you had double digit inflation last year they also said that your economic prospects for this current year remain below potential

tens of billions of dollars right now are being invested in the major infrastructure project the china pakistan economic order or c pac it's happening on your soil it's supposed to spur economic growth last year you installed a former military general to oversee it could you not find anyone in your civilian government to handle it. frankly ones are doing those that are tired as much a civilian as any of those who are gay and actually the human resource. we found the best which the. laws embody has served in the army but fact of the matter is that he is one of the most competent officers to handle this he knows pro and cons of this project he has so long time and we would like anyone would like you know someone with hands on experience to handle such projects and that's why he was selected so secondly there as you mentioned about the economy you see we inherited

. an economy that was in shambles his son was literally at the brink of bankruptcy and we started initiated oversteps from that very moment to be a pox on the economy is far better then at the time when we actually in then we would do all and good a bias ons groupies doable by the pakistan has actually the i would say the biggest temple prime minister non-con is that he has actually germinated the industry in pakistan for it is box on export has touched the highest by the. highest at the moment we are nor we are not putting money to stabilize their dollar but it being we are actually the money is going on and mr minister i think let's turn now to $1.00 of enron coms big promises when he came into office and that is to stamp out corruption the anti corruption agency the national accountability appear

on the and maybe he has a restaurant a dozen politicians from the opposition since then how many have been arrested from your party why would anyone who would have been arrested from my party he was also have no iraqi missile site in the. top if there is any you should point out who should be arrested from the party. well let me tell you what the supreme court of your country thinks about your handling and how you're approaching the anti corruption campaign and a stinging decision last year the supreme court said that the anti corruption body the national accounts ability carol is selectively applying its laws on individuals when it detained 2 opposition politicians for 15 months without credible charge your top bar association goes one step further to say it's a tool for arm twisting of political opponents so how can you say that the anti corruption campaign is legitimate with such

a stance on it like that. so. i would like to explain this in a bit to you know you see this whole national accountability bureau the anti corruption institution we have not the government has not appointed even. a lot of stuff in this you know organization from its german from the german of the knob to the very last good each and every one is appointed by the pm and then the they're in a large city or try to talk on a bus either his nominee is a prime minister or them but despite being so the whole institution of the law itself was actually passed by a pm i learned in 1000 men to salman then people's party to day ended the whole organisation is actually established by either debate party or be a 1000000 all the kids says they are charged with. not by us each and every case they are facing are actually fly by people's party gives be

a 1000000 or pm and i'm against people's party so it is a witch hunting all investigations of this case these cases were actually complete even before prime minister to go thirdly did is the evidence against them is not orderly wooden's where you will you know pick up someone and force him to make a statement each and every key is based on exit. documentary evidence for example the leader of the opposition shahbaz sharif is behind the bars and it is a member does all $41.00 volumes against him each and every money he transferred out so $2.00 money laundering has been accounted for so that is not in you know it's just fashionable to sit to criticize the you know the process for accountability but fact of the matter is that every pakistani citizen or their holder plundered pakistan every every one more the facts of the case that is. maybe you can give this impression to the foreign media. did is

a return thing but in fact over it is every progress on in those at all look this is our business in the modern well it's not just the foreign media we have to say mr minister that the european commission assessment of pakistan also raised red flags that there are very few cases of ruling party ministers and politicians that have been pursued since the $21000.00 elections amnesty international also points out that the crackdown has actually increased since the opposition united this this past fall they have called on you to cease using the national accountability bureau to detain critics of the government where is the accountability mr minister. well frankly suggesting that it is important that the people in the government should also be arrested for mood is a is i going to. wind down dog and this is quite an incident demonic i would see if there's any case against any gomen both we should bring before the court order

before the mob and sure that everyone's only making a political statement. i also agree she said that mr miss mr minister then let me ask you about one particular case i'd like to talk about one very exposed person who is seen as affiliated with your government that is a retired lieutenant general. we spoke about him earlier he was appointed head of the c pak authority he's been accused of not declaring his family's assets properly as you know. so this is the person who you trust to manage your major infrastructure project but what was i think you should have used in the allegation what i believe you should against the allegation is that he didn't properly file his wife his wife's assets the allegation is that he built businesses his family built businesses in multiple countries around the world worth tens of millions of dollars and the big question is you know you're trusting him to have this

infrastructure project at the very least it doesn't not warrant having him stand aside while you marry an investigation to avoid any appearance of impropriety that is what the opposition has called for. i'm actually against him is that the 7 years of his brothers in the united states of america they've built companies they build companies enrich his wife shared about 13 or 15 percent of you know the shares belonging to his wife so i'm able to understand that if this bill if this whole empire is built on corruption and that do in the united states of america where is the evidence to that and if he has transferred money to united states from america from here into money laundering as you know under the new money laundering regime in the hole in the international and human organ the gene he can easily be comprehended but the fact of the matter that is that

a position to use such kind of propaganda or lead to malign political opponents when it comes to hard evidence there actually has nothing missed and i learned this case. you know the public's not buying it the public perception is that corruption in fact is on the rise under your administration according to reporting from transparency international so since they simply aren't terribly confident in these efforts that you're speaking about right now are they. actually. know not coming to transparency international actually i believe i have gone to the board of france but ins international and i believe it's a very valid written report and. the emphasis is on the point they have raised are actually needs a careful consideration for example there is one point of. pakistan in description and that's because of the lower judicial court system in pakistan and i believe they're concerned you know that you've just this is and also the

revenue departments and the police department did need to get together and all this new book out that why. people have you know the kind of they don't have fear from these systems so i believe their response international board is very right on that other hand i would like to point out there are after a very long time there is nor corruption scandal at the ball put out if you have the government did is. 5 months of this government not a single scandal for a minister this is very i would say thing in pakistan because this on the country is on the used to be a government. and then they're into and hard for him and actually all the minister would have been good for the money mr minister i'd like to move on beyond your anti corruption campaign there's allegations of human rights abuses that have been mounting there's been recent demonstrations from family members demanding answers for people forcibly disappeared a term used for state back abductions is there

a parallel justice system in your country where security forces decide who is going to be taken. well frankly progress on has been into a situation where for example united to search of america build this whole gone down normal bit there was a huge debate and this happened likewise in spain the detention period actually gone up to 70 years so. drastic money is taken by the by the by the european countries by the america when the minister of terrorism if you caused all limits and that happened in pakistan as a but no not a melissy back in pakistan you will appreciate the biggest number of missing persons was in the previous letter from 2 dozen 13. but didn't do one hard for years of well for prime minister montgomery the number has actually declined very

reasonably declined and i believe that in next 6 months you will see the number of missing persons will be 0 mr minister ok so you say the number of missing people will be 0 tell me because your government and this has been reported has finally decided to expedite a mic mechanism to resolve the issue but you didn't do this on prompted if you. i understand that the islamic high court ruled last month that the prime minister and his cabinet could be held responsible for these forced disappearances so why should anyone trust that action will be swift and concrete and that these families indeed will get answers. actually. we are already bringing the law through with missing persons and the people in warden the missing persons can actually be prosecuted so we are taking all the actions possible and i think of the situation has improved a lot and the number of missing persons as i said before has declined to a very significant this is

a very significant change you can anyone can actually tell you and i believe that the next few months you will see. mr minister i'd just like to to driver one's attention to something that you have said on the matter publicly in fact you issued a tweet this was in february where you wrote the following these mothers can protest in punjab and yet no one will shoot them after looking at their id cards but what can we do about the sorrow of those mothers whose sons are shot in baluchistan just because they are punjabi just speak about the atrocities everywhere and say you know that the color of punjab blood is red to this tweet was sharply rebuked as rubbing salt in the wounds of these individuals is this how you deal with the grievances and the questions from the citizens of your country. i'm not following this there's just so. sweet thrown a depiction of the situation and this is what i'm saying m m m m nor did i think that is not my creed but fact of the battle is that punjabi. be youngsters really

really young boys have been killed in baluchistan by their terrorist supporters by a b a laid back by india unfortunately the punjabi mothers are not more. you know sons in baluchistan but this is the fact of the matter unfortunately india has created the situation in baluchistan the young jobbies have been killed mostly the city and unfortunately does the woes of these mothers. still i mean how can you how can you describe the. describe the situational mother who was going to go in that situation where his son was actually asked to come out of the bus train there like you are going to be as you and your sorry you appear to be deflecting the blame so i'd just like to ask you u.n. rights groups they have been calling for action in one particular case and i'd like to draw us to it that is the trade case of just contact human rights defender

formally of amnesty international he was reportedly forcibly disappeared in 2019 or arrested by security forces under the official secrets act the u.n. says he was held incommunicado for 7 months so more than half a year he continues to be deprived of his most basic rights what does that say about the rule of law in your country and wouldn't this be a good opportunity to start with transparency and answer the un's call for an investigation. no 100 percent prime minister is very clear on that if there is any case i don't have more details of the incident that you mention or frankly i have nor you i don't nor warp and the thing about disk is but in all cases prime minister has really kept a good he clearly said that there should be nor. is without a proper legal course adopted in progress on this one. as i said in baluchistan the us there is a situation unfortunately the just do it is going on back by india. that

situation is obviously what he some but actually we are dealing with it mr minister let's talk about freedom of the process media censorship has reportedly been on the rise of journalists who paint the military or the government in a negative light have faced threats human rights watch's describes what it calls a climate of fear you were once a journalist former minister of information you think it's acceptable to intimidate the press. does not acceptable in pakistan i believe media is probably one of the most free media the world can imagine we have in pakistan. little affected by this on the media is very very powerful. actually many people believe there should be a strong defamation laws which are not here unfortunately but by those on the media . i see no problem if you say in summary expression if you say it's free event then please explain to me why respected programs including the b.b.c.'s are

to language bullets and have pulled out of the country after what has been described as a constant interference by channels under pressure from the authorities why journalists have been charges have been brought against them others describe campaigns of online hate to intimidate them reporters without borders has condemned the campaigns they've asked the government to do something about it so where's the action. let all known here do something that politicians feel is the most i feel is the most because you know when i. did every day i feel for the was. on almost every 2nd day on something and i go to church so most of the dinner mr minister the bottom line is to learn to do it online hey it's more than just online hate i mean the european commission and its assessment and assessment of pakistan says that the increasing pressure by security forces with the tacit approval of the government on those with dissenting views including the media this is what they're

reporting about the situation that it comes from you ok so 1st is that all money i would like to spin the online here do something that every segment of the society feeds and politicians are actually the most well known but now coming to the. idea that you said can you please name any journalists who have been actually intimidated by this too and by the agencies is there any source to salute issue that you can relate absolutely engine of 2019 t.v. screen suddenly went black during geo news interview with a former president because cable t.v. operators disconnected transmission at the military high command perhaps that's according to reporters without borders voice of america has also reported periodic blackouts for example. we don't i don't think there's any black coat involved is not in boats on the. we have about 150 channels the number of journalists in thousands so i don't see any incident you have been

more been able to name one person who has actually been intimidated by the state agencies if there is a personal case of someone like concepts and then mr minister i would say. perhaps you will believe. a justice in the supreme court who recently said in a hearing that the media in the country is not free and of the country is being destroyed in a systemic manner perhaps you will believe that statement and perhaps you can also explain to me why your prime minister has separately cried foul and said that politicians are being targeted with libelous reporting do you expect people to believe that you are really the victims here unfriendly of their judge would have was the who hold many believe the judiciary is free and how many people how many judges have been appointed don't matter i would believe the answer would have been seem so it's actually did you should not make such

a political statement because it didn't come back to haunt them and it was really unprofessional for jais to to make such statements and everyone know why he was doing that and what is his background as a is against him. obviously he has very few years there why government and others are just re-elected and mr minister another justice on the court or great wealth and justice back here chimed in when he made that statement he said that judges should ideally avoid such comments but what can be done when the country itself is not in an ideal situation how how long can judges remain silent he said but what is what is your idea sure that those who make political statements. that's that's not for me to decide they're ok thank you very much but this is what the ice. political statement minister from our charity thank you so much for joining us on conflicts around.

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this is do w. news live from berlin and relief in nigeria after the release of more than 40 people kidnapped from a school last week but concerns remain for more than 300 schoolgirls were taken on friday from another location nearby also coming to. the u.s. points the finger directly at the saudi crown prince for the death of journalist. a confidential report is made public including prince mohammed bin solvent likely approved his kill.