Political govts remain weak as comparative to military regime : Shahbaz Sharif

Lahore : Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif has said that martial law was promulgated in Pakistan for four times and political governments also ruled the country in between, but if seen in the backdrop of the overall situation, the political governments usually remained weak. If the military regimes badly failed in serving the people, the political governments also not-served the people in a proper manner and therefore, people have had their reservations about these governments. We have to ponder over the reasons that why a critical situation arises after every four or five years in Pakistan.

He expressed these views while talking to a delegation of All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) which called on him here today under its President Sarmad Ali.

The CM said that state of Pakistan comprises of its federating units and if the federating units are developed collectively, then it will progress in the real sense. Pakistan was not made for plundering and people are looted.

The collective agenda of all of us should be to honestly serve the 21 crore people and the political leadership should follow the motto of public service. Everybody will treat us respectfully when we all will work hard. Individuals don’t matter and Pakistan will have to be moved further with collective efforts.

We all should collectively move further and sacrifice to save the country from beggary, defeat, and deprivation. If we keep on moving the wrong path then we will lose our destination; on the other side, the negative politics of falsehood, allegations, and mendacity ruins the destination of the nation.

Imran Niazi termed the metro bus as jangla Bus but has announced to launch this project in Peshawar after a period of more than four years. Imran Niazi is a master of U-turns and has wasted precious time of the nation as his politics revolves round falsehood.

During the meeting problems faced by the newspapers industry and the prevalent situation in the country was discussed in detail. The Chief Minister assured to help resolve the problems being faced by the newspapers industry.

Talking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said that role of the media is pivotal in raising public awareness; however, the attitude of some of the TV channels is irresponsible and such an irresponsible attitude is not helping the journey of public development and prosperity. If Pakistani society is to be strengthened, then the media will have to work in a positive and responsible manner.

The media should fully project the good works and its effective role cannot be ignored in the strengthening of the system. He said that gap between people and leadership can be plugged through public service and the people can only be served through hard work, honesty, and trust.

He lamented that ruling elite has obstructed the welfare projects relating to the layman. It is regrettable that lust, corruption, and nepotism have strongly established their roots in the society and one feels proud of the money earned through corruption and illegal means. The menace of corruption has been spread everywhere and this menace has affected the country like the termite. He said mega corruption scandals were unearthed in the past and these scandals are dumped in the offices of NAB and nobody gives a damn to them. The national kitty was looted in different cases including Nandipur, Neelam-Jhelum, NICL, OGRA and rental power. The corrupt were favored during the tenure of Musharraf and the new generation wants accountability of these corruption cases.

He said Pak Army is the most organized institution and every organization is duty bound to fulfill the responsibility of moving the country further by getting rid of troubles. He proposed that all the stakeholders should hold dialogue for the sake of the country and a mechanism can be set up for dialogue between politicians, judiciary, and army. He said that despite being a nuclear power, Pakistan has to seek aid and added that we should get rid of this beggary. The countries which were behind us in the past have surpassed us, today. I consider aid as AIDS; he said and added that the Punjab government has stopped getting aid from a country after 2010 but the projects of public welfare are in progress despite refusing this aid.

The Chief Minister said that a TV channel leveled baseless allegations about sending money to China in Multan Metro Project and defamed the country. This attitude is highly deplorable, he added. When NAB started investigations about Multan Metro, I asked the concerned officials to write a letter to the NAB that we are ready to give proof required by the NAB so that everything could be crystal clear. If accountability is required then across the board accountability should be held. The file of the Nandipur Power Project was kept pending by Babar Awan for three years during the tenure of Peoples Party and a huge sum of Rs. 20 billion was lost due to delay in this project. If we decide to make the nation great by following the principles of hard work, honesty, and trust, then Pakistan will definitely emerge as a great country. Nothing will be achieved in pulling legs of one another. Decision-making will have to be made keeping in view the objective situation and then it must be implemented the way Pakistan emerged as an atomic power despite global opposition and sanctions because the nation was united about it.

He said if four power plants are set up in Punjab in 22 months, then Pakistan can also be changed but we will have to get rid of egoism and Pakistan can achieve its destination through collective wisdom and efforts. The elements leveling baseless allegations should mend their ways. He said that energy projects have been moved further with hard work under the leadership of Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and electricity projects have been completed in a record period of time. The genie of load-shedding has been controlled and now it is almost nil. Today, our great friend China has shouldered Pakistan and has provided soft loans for some development projects. It is incorrect to state that loan is taken on the high interest rate, he added.

He said Orange Line Metro Train Project is a game-changer initiative and made it clear that tendering is not done in a government-to-government loan. However, upon my insistence, tendering was done for this project for the first time and a voluntary discount of Rs. 70 billion has been secured from the Chinese company giving the minimum bid, concluded the Chief Minister.

Provincial Minister Mujtaba Shuja ur Rehman, Special Assistant Malik Muhammad Ahmed Khan, Additional Secretary to Chief Minister Raja Jahangir Anwar and concerned officials were present on the occasion.

The delegation of APNS which called on the Chief Minister included Mujeeb ur Rehman Shami, Hameed Haroon, Arif Nizami, Rameeza Nizami, Secretary General APNS Umer Mujeeb Shami, Vice President Mehtab Khan, Joint Secretary Munir Jillani, Finance Secretary Waseem Ahmed, other senior journalists and newspapers’ owners.