Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar on Wednesday said that the provincial government has made record-breaking amendments in laws to make them more potent and to ensure their implementation.
CM Buzdar said in a statement that the governments in the past had amended laws to suit their own interests but the current regime is changing that trend. “Previous leadership has left the country in tatters, they looted, plundered and pillaged the institutes to ensure that there is no accountability for their actions,” said the chief minister.
“We have not limited the authority to the Chief Minister’s office like the practice of the past, the ministers are empowered and are seeking guidance and counsel before issuing orders, concluded Buzdar.
The CM has sought a report from the Administration about the incident of sweeping away of a bus due to flooding in Sakhi Sarwar Canal area of DG Khan. He directed the line departments to expedite their rescue operation to search for the people swept away in the water.
He said that record legislation has been made in public interest during the last one and a half years. In a statement, he said that past governments made legislation for the sake of their personal interests and ignored public interest in toto.
He said that past rulers bankrupted and devastated the institutions and added that they are also responsible for existing drawbacks of the system.
The chief minister emphasized that the PTI government started departmental reforms process from the day first and it is strenuously working to rectify the drawbacks spanning over many decades. Unlike the past, the power is not confined to the CM Office and provincial ministers are empowered while decisions are taken with consultations, the chief minister added.
The CM has directed to achieve the fixed targets for enhancing the provincial resources and asked the line departments to perform their duties proactively to achieve the tax and non-tax revenue targets. Any delay in these steps, taken for increasing the resources, would be intolerable, he added.
The chief minister also expressed displeasure over delay in steps taken for increasing revenue by some departments and said that revenue targets will be achieved by speedily disposing of file work and not by wasting time.
The work will not be furthered by moving files from one department to another department, he added. The chief minister emphasised that files should not be kept pending without any valid reason as time would have not been wasted if departments had performed timely.
He reiterated that filework should be disposed of speedily while following rules and regulations and added that increasing resources is essential to further facilitate the people. The line departments should ensure achieving their targets by working day and night, he said. He stated that an amount of 211 billion rupees has been released under the Annual Development Programme and the government has also saved billions of rupees by curtailing unnecessary expenditures.
The chief minister said that departments should ensure timely and correct utilization of released funds because the timely utilization of development resources is essential.
He assured the government would continue to provide resources on priority basis for health, education and other welfare projects. He directed regular monitoring of funds’ utilization adding that relief package worth billions of rupees will be given in the month of Ramzan.
