Taking strong exception to the expulsion from party decision, five disgruntled PML-N MPAs challenged the party’s leadership decision, saying that it has no legal status and has been made in a hurry.
The rebel PML-N MPAs spoke out against the decision to expel them from the party.
MPA Jalil Sharqpuri said that whoever decided to expel them from the party, did it in a hurry. It has no status as difference of opinion is the democratic right of everyone. Difference of opinion in a party is in fact beauty of the democracy and should not be misconstrued as rebel against the party leadership.
Mr Sharqpuri said that though he has received a show-cause notice yesterday, no reason was given as to why the notice was issued. “Everyone should talk in their own time, what was the violation of the party in the meeting”, he posed a questioned.
He said he can challenge the notice he had received and there is no reason given in the notice.
The MPA regretted that it seems the person who made the notice also did not know how to make a notice. He said that if there is a disagreement with someone, it is not a matter of anger.
PML-N member Punjab Assembly Maulvi Ghiasuddin said that he does not need a party ticket and that he can win election from his constituency as an independent. Responding to the previous show cause notice, he declared that their meeting with the chief minister did not violate the party’s discipline in any manner as the CM is the chief executive of the province.
“The Chief Minister and Prime Minister are constitutionally elected and there is no problem in meeting with them”, he pointed out, adding that he met the chief minister to raise issues of his constituency.
He said that he did not need a party ticket and could win from his constituency as an independent.
PML-N member Punjab Assembly Nishat Daha said that they cannot sell their faith for PML-N as Pakistan is first for him. “They cannot force us to resign and when people meet us they will know”, he added.
He said no one can stop him from speaking the truth and they should mind that they could not force us to resign.
PAST GOVT IGNORED PUBLIC WELFARE
Punjab Minister for Trade and Industry Mian Aslam Iqbal lamented that metro project was established in the previous tenure but the welfare of the poor was badly ignored as past rulers spent a whopping Rs250 billion on the orange line metro train but did not give a penny to the needy skilled workers.
Had this money been spent on imparting skilled education to the poor children, the country would have been different today, he added.
Common man’s welfare was not the agenda of the past government, he added.
A project like the metro does not earn the poor the bread as such projects were started for the sake of kickbacks and political gimmickry. He asserted that practical steps have been taken to expedite the industrial process and the government is working for the betterment of the indigent strata. Finance minister Hashim Jawan Bakht termed the youth as an asset and announced to empower it to strengthen the national economy.
This scheme will be reviewed every month to make it better than the best. He announced to motivate banks to give loans to the housing sector and hoped that the scheme would prove a game-changing initiative. MD PSIC stated that the target of giving loans to 68 thousand SMEs has been fixed.
Ministers, parliamentarians, and others attended the ceremony.
