Punjab Law Minister Sanaullah Khan said on Thursday that Chaudry Pervaiz Elahi and his party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) were supporting the division of Punjab only because of a growing popularity of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
Khan said despite having full support of the general in uniform and two-thirds majority in parliament, the PML-Q could not create the Seraiki province and rather opposed any proposal in this regard. But now Elahi and his party were supporting the division of Punjab for fear of PML-N’s popularity. He said the people of south Punjab had still not forgotten the negative attitude shown to them during the PML-Q’s rule and urged them to question Elahi on his biased attitude and hatred for Punjab.
He said the PML-N government had substantially increased the development budget for south Punjab allocating Rs 25 billion to the area in 2008-9, Rs 41 billion in 2009-10 and Rs 52.81 billion in 2010-11. Moreover, he said, a sum of Rs 8 billion was allocated under South Punjab Development Programme and Rs 740 million under special development package to the Multan Division.
Khan said under the Punjab Economic Opportunity Programme in collaboration with Department for International Development, projects worth Rs 7.5 billion were underway in Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, Lodhran and Muzaffargarh. Similarly development projects worth Rs 300 million had been started in Dera Ghazi Khan, Rs 440 million in Rahim Yar Khan and Rs 250 million in the tribal areas of south Punjab.
