LAHORE: The opposition party in the Punjab Assembly (PA), Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), issued a ‘fact sheet’ regarding, what it states, the poor performance of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) provincial government during the last three parliamentary years.The fact sheet was issued by the deputy parliamentary leader of the opposition, Shaukat Basra, through a press release on Sunday in which he claimed that the PML-N had wasted billions of rupees in the name of “Sasti Roti Scheme”.Basra pointed out in the fact sheet that Punjab Chief Minister (CM), Shahbaz Sharif, had chanted slogans of “well educated Punjab” when he came in power and had announced to establish an information technology university at 8-Club Road (CM Secretariat), however, the decision was never executed even after a passage of three years.He said that the Sharif brothers owned at least 13 sugar mills and they deliberately created an artificial crisis of sugar in the province.Basra also said that Shahbaz Sharif had only attended seven out of 26 PA sessions despite the opposition calling three sessions with a special request extended to him pertaining to his presence in the assembly, however, the CM did not once bother to attend the session.He said that the PML-N-led government in Punjab was dealing with the deprived people of the province with “state power”, sending to jail protesters like farmers, labourers, clerks, doctors, teachers who tried to tender their demands through demonstrations.Basra said that due to negligence of the PML-N government, funds of Rs 1.2 billion of the Health Department had not been used while funds released by the government for improvement of 1,309 schools had also been misused.The PPP leader claimed that the Punjab government was facing a serious deficit of Rs 70 billion while it was a debtor of Rs 100 billion. “Although Shahbaz Sharif announced not to take any foreign loans, he himself had written a letter to the Asian Development Bank to get Rs 23 billion in the shape of a new loan,” he said.
Basra also raised the issue of southern Punjab in the fact sheet, saying that the PML-N government had established five tehsils in Lahore but nothing was done for the southern areas of the province. He claimed that the Youth Commission of Punjab had been a failure and the youth had come on roads against the poor policies of the government. He also criticised the Ashiana Housing Scheme and the Food Support Programme in the fact sheet.About the war against terror, he alleged that “no-go areas” in province could not be brought under control while the government was trying to avoid exposing huge corruption of Rs 40 million in police department. He also said that due to bad governance and poor policies, production of rice had been reduced up to 690 kilogramme per acre against 730 kilogramme per acre in the past. He further stated that production of cotton had also reduced to 19 mound per acre against 26 mound per acre previously and production of wheat at 27 mound per acre against 29 mound per acre in the past. – Dailytimes
