FOR last few days rumours were rife about removal of Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar from his office yet these unconfirmed reports were once again put to rest on Saturday when Prime Minister Imran Khan during his visit to Lahore expressed satisfaction over the performance of provincial CM. Mr Khan reportedly assured Buzdar that he would continue serving as chief executive of the province till completion of his government’s constitutional term in 2023. While these words should be a source of encouragement for Buzdar, those conspiring against him should also divert their energies to some more constructive activities aimed at fulfilling the promises made with people before elections.
Unfortunately a negative propaganda has been going on against Usman Buzdar ever since he became the CM. There are certain elements within the PTI ranks that want him to be dislodged so that they could take over this important seat of the country’s most populous province. The reality is that Buzdar faces no threat whatsoever from the opposition but from within his own ranks and this also impacts his performance. In our view time has come for CM Punjab to show doors to those provincial ministers who are not delivering and bringing a bad name to the party. As regards Buzdar’s own performance, statistics are sufficient to speak. Firstly, the province under his leadership has not lagged behind other federating units to stifle the spread of Covid-19. Smart lockdown policy was successfully implemented in the province after identification of hotspots and this is the reason that over the last few weeks, a significant reduction is being witnessed in number of Corona cases.
Then what goes to the credit of Buzdar is that he ring fenced provincial budget, which means that no area especially the neglected ones will be ignored in development expenditure. This is the reason that the South Punjab received a lot of attention and unprecedented funds were spent for improvement of health and education infrastructure in the hitherto neglected region. In just one year, the first technical varsity was set up in Dera Ghazi Khan that has already opened its doors for admission. Provision of Sehat Insaf Cards and upgradation of health facilities in South Punjab are other feathers to his cap. The groundbreaking of Quaid-i-Azam Business Park performed by PM Imran Khan on Saturday also shows his vision for industrial development, which certainly is of immense importance to steer the economy out of current dire straits. In fact there were only three industrial zones when Buzdar became the CM and today the province has nine industrial zones of which seven have been notified. One expects that work on Quaid-i-Azam Business park will be completed within given timelines with provision of all basic amenities required in order to attract both domestic and foreign investment.
Since Buzdar enjoys support of the Prime Minister, there is no point for him to be worried or distracted and he must keep his focus on the projects that bring further improvement in lives of the people of province. The prime focus should be on improving the governance system so that issues of shortage of essential commodities such as wheat flour and sugar do not crop up again as these have badly hurt the popularity of PTI in the people. A strict action needs to be taken against elements behind the hoarding and increasing the prices of essential items.
