Good bye my friends

Lahore: Punjab Chief Minister Najam Sethi hosted a dinner in honour of provincial cabinet, secretaries, divisional and district officers. Caretaker provincial ministers, Chief Secretary, Chairman P&D, provincial secretaries, and senior officers attended the dinner.

Addressing the dinner, Najam Sethi said that caretaker government of Punjab has succeeded in discharging its national responsibility efficiently. He said that an impartial, hardworking and capable team was selected and due to its cooperation, we succeeded in fulfilling our national responsibility. He said that we achieved our targets due to the untiring efforts of this team. He said that holding of peaceful and transparent elections was our top priority.

The Chief Minister said that maintenance of law and order, provision of best treatment facilities to the masses and procurement of wheat were included in our agenda. He said that whatever humanly possible was done for protecting the children from measles. He thanked provincial cabinet and provincial administration for the cooperation for holding elections in a peaceful and transparent manner.

Najam Sethi said that although loadshedding was federal issue but we made sincere efforts for reducing loadshedding and providing relief to the people. The Chief Minister lauded the services of members of provincial cabinet, Chairman P&D Sohail Ahmad, Secretary Finance Tariq Bajwa, Secretary Home Shahid Khan, Secretary Health Capt. Retd. Arif Nadeem, Principal Secretary to CM Shahid Mehmood Khan, Personal Staff Officers Imran Ahmad, Zaman Narejo and Security Officer Usman Gondal and thanked for their cooperation.
Earlier, Punjab Chief Minister Najam Sethi, presided over a farewell meeting of the provincial caretaker cabinet at Chief Minister’s Secretariat. Provincial Ministers, Advisor on Taxation, Chief Secretary, Inspector General of Police and Secretaries were present. The meeting reviewed wheat procurement campaign and the measures taken for controlling measles, polio and dengue. The meeting appreciated the steps taken by caretaker government for general elections and in social sector. The cabinet paid rich tributes to the services of Chief Minister Najam Sethi.

Addressing the meeting, Chief Minister Najam Sethi said that caretaker government of Punjab took effective steps for holding of peaceful and transparent elections. He said that a peaceful atmosphere was provided to the people to exercise their right of franchise in an independent and free manner. He said that foreign observers and leaders of political parties have also appreciated the measures taken by caretaker Punjab government for the conduct of general elections. He said that caretaker setup has performed its national responsibility in an efficient manner in accordance with its mandate. Due to tireless efforts of provincial ministers, secretaries and concerned authorities, the elections process has concluded in a satisfactory manner. He also lauded the efforts of provincial Home Secretary Tariq Pervaiz, Chief Secretary, Secretary Home and Inspector General Police. He especially thanked provincial Finance Secretary Tariq Bajwa for cooperation at every stage in the efforts of welfare of the common man.

The Chief Minister further said that excellent arrangements were made for wheat procurement campaign for ensuring due return to the farmers for their labour and maximum facilities were provided to the cultivators at wheat procurement centres. He said that in spite of elections, more than 29 lakh tons wheat has been procured due to the efforts of Food Department. He congratulated Provincial Food Minister, Secretary Food and their entire team on success of wheat procurement campaign. He said that dengue situation is completely under control and effective measures have been adopted to check the outbreak of this menace. The Chief Minister directed the Health Department to continue to play its vigorous role to protecting children against measles. He said that the caretaker government has performed its national responsibility with honesty, hardwork and commitment and it is a matter of satisfaction that no member of the caretaker setup has been accused of corruption nor been involved in any scandal.

During a briefing regarding the progress of wheat procurement campaign Secretary Food informed that more than 29 lakh tons wheat has been procured from cultivators so far during the 21-day campaign while 84 percent gunny bags have been distributed. Monitoring committees are operating for monitoring wheat procurement campaign. Secretary Food said that Food Minister, he himself and senior officers of Food Department are paying regular visits to wheat procurement centres of all districts for monitoring arrangements for the campaign. Secretary Health gave a briefing about the programmes for controlling measles, polio and dengue. He said that a special campaign was launched from April 29 to May 7 for controlling measles and 1125 teams administered high quality WHO approved vaccine to lakhs of children. He said that third party audit of the campaign was also arranged by UNICEF and WHO. He said that another programme has been evolved for vaccination of 30 lakh children of six to ten years of age against measles. He said in the first phase vaccine will be administered to the children of 11 districts from June 24 to July 4 while in the second phase the children of the remaining districts will be vaccinated in September. He said that the polio vaccination programme has also been completed successfully. He said that dengue situation is under control and there is no threat of the outbreak of the disease this year. He said that a vigorous public awareness has been launched through media, seminars and other programmes regarding preventive measures against dengue.