Altaf Hamid Rao .
MIRPUR (AJK) ( Parliament Times): Azad Jammu Kashmir Prime Minister Chaudhry Anwar ul Haq has said that his incumbent AJK government was completed the day when he [PM] and two ministers took oath of their offices.
While addressing the AJK Legislative Assembly session after the approval of the 15th Constitutional amendment in the State metropolis on Saturday, the PM said that he has the power and authority to reduce or increase the number of ministers of his cabinet as and whenever he desired.
“Referring to Pakistan’s angry culture of politics, the PM said that he didn’t want this kind of culture should take over the legislative assembly and spoil the entire system”, an AJK Govt. handout issued Saturday evening said.
“I don’t want the kind of political behaviour that is troubling Pakistan today, dominating this august House (Legislative Assembly)”, he said, according to the handout.
Thanking members of the august house for voting in favour of the fifteenth amendment, the PM said that the purpose of today’s amendment was that ownership belongs to this House.
“I take ownership of the Fifteenth Amendment”, he said, adding that he would never shy away from taking ownership of whatever he did and at the same time deny what he didn’t. He said that everything would be open.
“The ruler’s job is to break the status quo”, he said.
Referring to his government’s one-month performance, the PM said that 10 billion rupees had been released by the federal government in five days.
Prime Minister Chaudhry Anwar ul Haq said that every person who gets elected has a desire to become a minister to serve his people effectively. He said that an elected representative’s desire to become a minister is not a bad thing.
“Having more ministers will not cost as much as the Prime Minister’s Secretariat with 16 ministers spent last year”, the PM said, adding that the expenses of the ministers would be met by reducing 80% of the expenses of the PM office.
‘ I am grateful to the PML-N, PPP, members of the like-minded group and PTI legislators who did not obstruct the House proceedings”, he said.
He said that the government’s job was to tolerate criticism.”You have every right to criticize the government in case there are contradictions in the government’s words and actions”, he said.
“The assembly is the source of strength”, he said, adding that his first order as the prime minister was about the implementation of the speaker’s ruling.
Terming Latif Akbar as a dedicated political worker, the PM expressed the hope that Mr. Akbar would lead the House in a better way, the State government handout added.