State Minister for Information & Broadcasting Farrukh Habib has said that Pakistan will continue to tread the road to progress and prosperity due to prudent policies of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
He was talking to the media here at Sammundri Road after visiting various development projects in his constituency NA-108 on Saturday.
He recounted the successes of previous year and said that United Nations and other international organisations had openly acknowledged the smart lockdown policy of Pakistan, which helped it win top position in returning back to normality despite COVID-19 pandemic.
He said that the new year would bring more good news for Pakistanis as the country had achieved the ambitious target of vaccinating more than 70 million people till Dec 31, 2021.
He dispelled an impression that all vaccine was donated by international organisation. He said the government spent $2 billion on the purchase of vaccine. In this connection, he specially lauded the services of Federal Minister Asad Umar, Dr Faisal and NCOC, who are working day and night to save people from pandemic.
He termed the Punjab health card a gift of present government for the new year and said that health sector remained neglected by the previous governments, but this government had given top priority and every family in Punjab will get free treatment up to Rs 1 million.
He rejected the criticism of Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar and said that he had privilege to present record development budget of Rs 750 billion whereas the PML-N had presented much trumpeted budget of Rs 488 billion.
He said that Punjab utilised 98 per cent of the allocated funds previous year, which reflected that the government was not only allocating funds but also making efforts to utilise it for welfare of masses.
About Faisalabad, he said that it got a package of Rs 13 billion for roads and infrastructure projects and the amount had already been released.
He said that work on Sammundri Road, Jhang Road and Jaranwala Road had been started while construction of Faisalabad-Chiniot
Road would be started very soon under public private partnership mode. He said that Punjab had allocated Rs 360 billion for district development package to ensure equal distribution of funds among all districts of the province.
He said that it would redress the complaints of backward districts of the province. He said that the package would be utilised for construction of roads and other infrastructure projects.
He said that 35 per cent of annual development fund had been allocated for south Punjab which would bring the backward area at par with the developed districts of the province.—APP
