GUJRANWALA: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Gujranwala Information Secretary Sagheer Butt has said that government has failed to provide basic facilities to the public. “Instead of resolving the public issues our corrupt rulers are busy in increasing their bank balance,” he said while talking to PPP office-bearers here on Wednesday. He said that health and education sectors were being neglected by rulers and the government had not given any plan for the improvement, causing a myriad of problems for the poor. He said that poor patients were left with no option but to contact private healthcare centres due to lack of facilities and unavailability of beds at the Gujranwala District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital. He said it was a matter of great displeasure that higher authorities were consistently rejecting the plan to set up new hospitals, including one for children, in Gujranwala. “The failure of the motorcycle ambulance plan was also taking its toll on the public exchequer,” he said, adding that many projects had become useless, as they were started without proper planning. Similarly, he said that dozens of schools were deprived of boundary walls, computer labs, furniture and other basic facilities. He said that the Punjab government was playing foul with citizens in the name of free education, as hefty fee was being received by education boards while admitting admission forms. The PPP leader further said that the Punjab government had provided billions of rupees to 56 public companies, which had failed to deliver due to rampant corruption. “It was astonishing to know that no legal action was taken against them by the government.” Referring to the situation of law and order in the city, he said that the situation had not improved despite the recently deployed Dolphin Force. PPP leaders, including Sagheer Butt, Malik Zulfiqar, Iqbal Meharl, Ali Haider Butt, Ahad Ramey Advocate, Taimmor Dar, Raht Virk and others, demanded the government to take notice of the problems facing the people and construct new hospitals, especially one for children, and a university in the city as soon as possible. Published in Daily Times, November 16th 2017.