Punjab Information Minister Fayyazul Hassan Chohan has said that Chief Minister (CM) Usman works silently without setting up any camp offices and consequently reducing the provincial government’s expenses by 60 per cent, therefore, “he should be praised like Sher Shah Suri”.
Suri was the founder of the Suri Empire in the northern Indian subcontinent, with its capital in Sasaram in modern-day Bihar.
Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, Information Minister Chohan asserted that the former government caused a loss of $21 billion to the national exchequer and more than 2,000 officials were appointed for the security of then CM Shehbaz Sharif’s relatives.
“He [Shehbaz] had established eight camp offices but neither of them were in Lahore,” the minister said and added that Buzdar could not be compared to opposition leaders as the former had not laundered money.
The provincial minister said that people like Tallal Chaudhry, Daniyal Aziz and Javed Latif had earlier “taken over the system”, while Buzdar’s government has recovered loans worth over Rs10 billion in one year, allocated 35 per cent budget for southern parts of Punjab and built shelter homes for the poor.
“The CM has allocated a huge portion of funds for the development of South Punjab in the provincial budget for the first time in the history of the province.”
Chohan said that policies pertaining to district industry and special education were approved during Buzdar’s tenure and construction of nine universities and nine hospitals had now been started.
“Previously, every person raised slogans against neglecting South Punjab. Now, six out of nine hospitals in the province are being constructed there. CM Buzdar can be titled as Waseem Akram-Plus, if we thoroughly review his performance within over a year.”
He said Punjab had collected 104 per cent tax revenue that increased the province’s income up to Rs75 billion and in the first year, policies for tourism, agriculture, labour, industries, water and forests had been approved in Punjab.
The provincial minister continued that 36 bills were approved by the Punjab government for the first time in the history of the province.
“So-called political leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) had only grabbed government lands during their tenures,” the provincial government’s mouthpiece maintained.
