Pervaiz Elahi again challenges to Shahbaz Sharif

Lahore: Pakistan Muslim League (PML) senior central leader and former Deputy Prime Minister Ch Parvez Elahi while addressing a press conference at the Muslim League House here presented comparative complete facts and figures of every sector of his 5 years govt in the Punjab and 15 years of Shahbaz Sharif and again threw challenge to him for open debate (manazra) on TV and before media and said that our revolutionary works for the development of Punjab and betterment of the poor and common man and his children had been out into reverse gear, surplus province of our tenure was under debt now, indifferent attitude of the rulers over bloodshed of the Punjabis in Balochistan and suicides of the poor along with children due to poverty was shameful.

He said that Shahbaz Sharif had stopped free education, free medicines, subsidy to farmers, patrolling posts petrol, journalists colonies, funds of the backward areas, grants of the bar associations and free treatment of lawyers had wasted all funds on jangla service like show piece projects, jangla bus service was being given subsidy of Rs 12 billion annually, this was new PIA because the airline incurred loss of Rs 10 billion every year, it was crime to remain silent over rapid destruction of the province, those who had secured the govt in the name of Punjab had destroyed it.

Continuing Ch Parvez Elahi said that Shahbaz and company had turned haven of peace into paradise of criminals, oppressed was not being given justice, none of his good work was continued and carried forward, how many power plants had been inaugurated but not a single megawatt of electricity was being produced by any plant, hospitals and colleges established by us were not being made functional.

Tariq Bashir Cheema MNA, Muhammad Basharat Raja, Ch Zaheeruddin Khan, Ahmad Yar Heraj, Mian Munir and other PML leaders were also present in the press conference.
Ch Parvez Elahi said further that poor people, workers and farmers were the biggest target of inefficiency and vindictiveness of these rulers, they raised price of sugar instead of sugarcane, rice and other crops of the farmers were not purchased on fixed price whereas we had given land to the landless, ensured water till tail, provided subsidy on laser leveler and electricity and got water channels concreted.
Presenting details of defective and poor performance of the Punjab Govt and trampling of the peoples’ rights, Ch Parvez Elahi said that Article 6 should be applied on them who had neither held local bodies’ elections nor even framed local bodies laws. He said that programmes and projects of his tenure were duly appreciated and acknowledged by international organizations including World Bank and Asian Development Bank, our Education Programme was being taught in Harvard University, our vision and programme was to transform the province into a social welfare state in 15to 20 years and the poor and common man and his children was the focus of every work, literacy rate in Punjab had gone up to 62 per cent in 2007 from 47 per cent in 2002 which had come down to 50 per cent now, we had established prosecution service, consumer courts, traffic wardens service, colonies of the journalists, distributed 80 thousand acres of land among the poor, given Vision 2020 for all important sectors and still the province was surplus of Rs 100 billion which was under heavy debt of Rs 700 billion, it was difficult for the common man to have two times meals, instead of completing our under-implementation projects billions of rupees were wasted on flop schemes like Sasti Roti, Tandoor, black and yellow cabs, staff had not been given to our established 28 degree colleges like Wazirabad Cardiology Hospital, NFC Award was now much more than our tenure and still had brought about prosperity in the province.

Condemning ban on ARY, he said that wanted to bury the voice of every opponent. He said that law and order had been destroyed by making the law enforcers their personal servants, Punjab had the highest crime rate, no incident like Model Town or Muharrum in Rawalpindi had occurred during our tenure, the reason for this was incompetency of Shahbaz Sharif, the govt clamouring about good governance should at least report of its own secret agencies which would open their eyes, there had been record increase in crime in the province, according to the report one lakh 98 thousand crime was reported till July this year, FIR of 90 thousand was declined to be registered, 6000 abduction/ kidnapping cases, 3000 murders, daily about 200 vehicles, 600 motor cycles and about 3500 mobiles were being snatched.

Continuing, Ch Parvez Elahi said that Shahbaz Sharif govt had no priorities, people were getting even neat and hygienic drinking water and medicines, Shahbaz Sharif had perhaps forgotten that metro would be needed only if the people live. He said that foreign investment of billions of rupees was trumpeted in Faisalabad also but not even Rs 6 investment had been made in six months, reality should be asked from Pakistani investor with whom the accord was reached, during our tenure 36 First Time in Pakistan programmes were launched and Punjab supported GDP of Pakistan whereas today Punjab had become burden on Pakistan. He said people of Punjab had reached the conclusion that Shahbaz Sharif and company would continue worsening the conditions of the people and making people poorer but ” we have to safeguard and protect rights of the people of Punjab and will ensure they get these rights back”, distribution of resources among the favoured ones was the biggest dishonesty and this would be eliminated.