LAHORE: Governor Salmaan Taseer attended Benazir Bhutto’s photo exhibition on Tuesday quashing media reports about his secret departure to Dubai along with his family. A private TV channel reported that Taseer had once again gone abroad without informing any government department and giving charge to the Punjab Assembly speaker. After the reports started raising speculations, journalists contacted the Governor’s House whose spokesman said that he was also unable to trace Taseer.
Talking to journalists at Benazir’s photo exhibition six hours after the reports surfaced, Taseer criticised the Punjab government and said that it looks like the provincial government was suffering from Taseer-phobia and “loudspeaker of Punjab’s rulers” was always busy talking against him. He advised Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to run his government without any fear as the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) was not going to topple it. “We are with you and are not going to remove your government, relax and do your job”, Taseer asked Shahbaz.
He said that the Punjab government should relax and simply concentrate on running affairs of the province instead of always thinking about his departure, as he was not going anywhere.
Taseer informed journalists that the Punjab government wanted to occupy the Governor’s House so that lavish food parties could be organised at the government’s expense.
The Punjab governor said that he was not going anywhere and would stay in the Governor’s House. Taseer said that some TV channels and newspapers were spreading rumours about him and he was surprised at working of a private TV channel and a media group, as its journalists were writing biased reports against him.
“Punjab government and a certain media group are issuing false reports about my departure for abroad,” he said. Taseer said that the Punjab government was intolerant towards him, as he belonged to the PPP. Referring to the report in which he was accused of being involved in a plot to assassinate the former Lahore High Court (LHC) chief justice (CJ), he said that the provincial government, which was itself functioning on a stay order must stop unlawful and illegal activities against him. Taseer said that all these moves by the provincial rulers were aimed at capturing the Governor’s House but they would not succeed in this regard.
Taseer said that his wife and daughter had gone to Dubai and he was present in the Governor’s House and also attended the Aitchison College’s Board of Governors’ meeting.
He said that what type of journalism a particular media group was presenting by just targeting the governor of the PPP. “Sometimes, the Punjab CM talks about the president and sometimes he passes remarks about me,” Taseer said. He said that Ansar Abbasi, Pervaiz Rasheed and Rana Sanaullah were so ignorant and did not know where he was and there statements had also damaged the province. “I don’t want to answer these jokers,” he said.
The Punjab governor said that if he wanted to go abroad he had to tell the Presidency and it was up to them to notify anyone as the acting governor or not. Taseer said that there was no political prisoner in the PPP government’s tenure and the media, judiciary and opposition were independent, as there was proper democracy in the country. He hoped that the PPP would win the 2013 general elections as well.
