Our Correspondent Sahiwal
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday said his government was making all-out efforts to stop horse-trading and the buying of votes in the upcoming elections of upper the house of parliament.
Talking to reporters here on Friday, Imran Khan said that bids were already being made for seats in Senate elections and he knows which political leader is investing the money.
He said that it was impossible that a person who invests in becoming a Senator will not recover it by making money later on. The government will bring constitutional amendments for open voting in Senate elections and those who oppose anti-corruption amendments will be exposed to the nation, he said.
The Prime Minister said that Pakistan Democratic Movement was bound to fail, all the looters have ganged up to blackmail him while their fugitive leader wants to bring a revolution while sitting in London. Imran Khan said that he considers criticism from the opposition an honour. “If the opposition praises me, I would consider it an insult”, he added.
He said the government and the opposition are supposed to run the parliament together but from day one, they have been using it to get an NRO instead of discussing issues of public interest.
The Prime Minister further said that government lands cannot be occupied without political backing, Khokhar brothers grabbed billions worth of government land and Maryam Nawaz expressed solidarity with them. Maryam, who calls herself a future leader, supported the land mafia who occupied government lands in their tenures. When the Prime Minister himself backs the land grabbers, who will stop the rest, he asked.
Imran Khan said that Fazlur Rehman is a corrupt man, calling him Maulana is an insult to the real scholars. He became a billionaire by exploiting the children of madrassahs.
He said that PTI has given data of 40,000 accounts to the Election Commission and challenged that opposition parties would not even be able to produce details of 1000 accounts.
He said the PTI-led government would soon introduce a bill for constitutional amendment in Senate election law in the Parliament, which he said will expose those who are involved in corrupt practices in the country. “We don’t have two-third majority in the Parliament but still we are presenting a bill so that the nation should know who is working to eliminate corruption and who is involved in it.”
Earlier, Imran Khan inaugurated Kamyab Kisan scheme during his visit to Sahiwal on Friday in order to provide a special package to farmers. Addressing the gathering, Imran Khan announced that every citizen of Punjab will get health insurance by the end of December 2021. Khan said that Pakistan is going to become an Islamic welfare state. He said that even in richer countries, people don’t have universal health coverage. He announced that the people of Sahiwal will also get Rs750,000 health insurance.
He said that youth will primarily get employment from the industrial estate. At this time, the textile industry is having a shortage of labour, whereas, the construction industry was also back on its feet. The government has spotted land for establishing an industrial zone in Sahiwal.
“For Sahiwal people, the most important requirement is an improved communication system. The government will prioritise the matter for road construction in accordance with the Sahiwal’s need.”
The government is working on a long-term policy for agriculture sector as in past, no one paid attention to the sector nor carried out any research. The agriculture sector has been included in China Pakistan Economic Corridor project, he said.
He said that every government must have programmes like Ehsaas and Kamyab Jawan in order to provide maximum relief to the poor people. He detailed that the federal government distributed Rs180 billion funds under Ehsaas programme in a transparent way.
Not a single complaint came forth regarding any kind of political discrimination in fund distribution. The largest portion of the funds had been distributed in Sindh where Pakistan People’s Party is in the government, said Khan, adding that the welfare programme like Ehsaas could only be successful if it is made free from political interference.
He said that after providing medical facilities to the common people, we have to pay special attention to education. We have to improve the education standards in government schools and we have decided to make a uniform curriculum for Pakistan.
“Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf is going to introduce a new local government system in which the powers will be transferred to the grassroots level. [LG] elections will be held this year and under the new local government system, people will get their issues resolved while staying at their homes.”
On the occasion, Imran Khan congratulated Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar for demolishing the palaces of land mafias. He said that the land mafia in Lahore was having the support of the former prime minister and his family.
“I saw a palace falling,” said the prime minister. “Lahore’s biggest qabza group which was being backed by the previous prime minister and his family. Land was being grabbed in their presence [in fact] they protected them. So who was protecting the qabza group? The prime minister and his government.”
