Shehbaz hits out at critics, vows more public service if reelected

• Inaugurates several schemes during Pattoki visit

• Says love for Nawaz cannot be removed from hearts of people

• Lashes out at Imran Khan, Zardari over bad-governance

PATTOKI: Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday visited Pattoki tehsil of the Kasur district and inaugurated different projects besides laying the foundation stones of many new schemesand announcing further development projects.

Addressing a public gathering in Pattoki, the chief minister said that the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) government spent billions of rupees on the development of the Kasur district and different health, education and infrastructure projects were completed with the resources amounting billions of rupees.

“Nawaz Sharif has got me elected as the acting president of the PML-N after been deprived of the party presidency, but love for him cannot be removed from the hearts of the people as he lives there. In fact, Nawaz symbolises Pakistan,” said the chief minister.

“He (Nawaz) is a statesman and today, a resolution has been passed in the central executive committee meeting to elevate Muhammad Nawaz Sharif as the lifelong party Quaid. He will always be the Quaid and we shall progress and move further jointly under his leadership,” he added.

The Punjab chief minister said that a delay of 22 months affected the Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT) project due to “Imran Niazi who tells lies”, and added the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) trusted Imran Khan and brought him to power four and a half years ago, but he “economically ruined the province”.

“Niazi Sahib wasted precious time of the nation through sit-ins and lockdown and promoted a culture of name-calling. Khan Sahib boasted of producing 74 megawatts of electricity in the KP. I ask him if he has produced this electricity in space because it appears to be non-existent on earth,” said Shehbaz.

Stating that Khan claimed of developing hospitals and educational institutions, but instead wasted resources on the metro bus in Peshawar, Shehbaz said, “He (Imran Khan) has not developed any hospitals or educational institutions, in fact after a lapse of four and a half years the whole city of Peshawar has been dug recklessly to start a metro bus there,” said the chief minister.

He also said that he filed a defamation case of ten billion rupees against Imran Khan and then sent a notice of Rs27 billion, but Khan was “avoiding the court”.

“Yesterday he appeared along with a bundle of allegations regarding the Multan Metro Bus. I request the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan to constitute a full bench to probe the matter. If I am proven guilty, I shall apologise to the nation and leave politics for once and for all. But if Khan Sahib is proven wrong about his allegations then he should leave politics and learn to speak the truth,” he said.

Taking on Asif Ali Zardari, he said that On the other hand was Zardari whose government “ruined Karachi.”

“Once Karachi was a beautiful metropolis, but now filth and garbage are everywhere and rundown buses are plying on the roads. This is a pitiable situation. If the people in the 2018 polls elect the PML-N to power, Peshawar and Karachi will be developed like Lahore,” he said.

He said the farmers were getting fertilisers at half the price for the last three years, while small farmers were getting interest-free loans worth billions of rupees. The PEEF, he said, distributed Rs15 billion as stipends among deserving students within the last nine years and 350,000 students were benefitting from the programme.

“Similarly, thousands of kilometers of roads have been constructed in rural areas and hospitals and educational institutions have also been set up along with launching a mega project of clean drinking water,” said Shehbaz. He said that the elections would be held after four months and if the PML-N were once again given an opportunity of servicing the masses, establishment work on the Kasur University project would soon be started.

“Along with it, the development projects announced today will also be accelerated for their timely completion,” said Shehbaz.

The people, he said, were getting quality medicines in government hospitals and the medicines used by the son of the prime minister, were the “same as the ones being provided to the son of a common man in public hospitals”.

“The PML-N selflessly served the masses and we shall eliminate poverty and unemployment to make Pakistan that Iqbal and Jinnah dreamt of,” he said.

Punjab Assembly Speaker Rana Iqbal, MNAs, MPAs and a large number of people were also present at the gathering.