Top Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi on Friday termed the government’s Rs 341 billion agriculture package as a publicity package, saying its announcement ahead of the local government elections was tantamount to pre-poll rigging.
Interacting with a group of reporters, the former Punjab chief minister maintained that the district coordination officers and police had been tasked with convincing independent candidates to join the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.
“We have raised this issue with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP),” said Elahi, complaining, “Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif did not take the provincial governments into confidence while announcing this package.”
He also questioned how Imran Khan would tolerate when Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf run-province would be giving out Rs 40 billion under this federal government’s package.
According to the PML-Q leader, the government has caused the farmers and peasants a loss of Rs 12 billion by importing tomato and potato from India.
Elahi also argued that when the farming community was being facilitated across the globe, the PML-N government had increased the price of fertilizer bag by Rs 500.
Estimating that India was giving Rs 34 billion relief to farmers, Japan Rs 45 billion and America Rs 24 billion, he said the Pakistani government was cheating 90 percent of people of Punjab who were associated with agriculture.
About the power projects of the ruling party, Elahi said that only 15-megawatt electricity was being generated by the Bahawalpur solar project which was installed at a cost of Rs 16 billion, while only 85-megawatt electricity could be generated from the Rs 10 billion furnace oil project.