Daily Times

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League (Q) senior central leader and former deputy prime minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi has acknowledged the Lahore High Court’s verdict on Orange Line Metro Train (OMT) project, saying that the decision has proved PML’s rightful claim that Shahbaz Sharif was destroying the heritage of the city.

Addressing a press conference at his residence on Sunday, he said huge losses incurred in the construction should be recovered from Shahbaz Sharif, who was the mastermind behind illegal constructions like ‘Jangla Bus’ and ‘Khatti Train’. Senior party leaders including Ch Zaheeruddin Khan and Mian Munir were also present on the occasion.

Elahi said his local trains project was much cheaper and more profit yielding but the government stopped it, as dollars and commissions would not have been made in that project. “Those who shamelessly killed 14 people in Model Town are not concerned about the kidnappings of children, as they were more consumed in mixing up the figures of kidnapped children to hush the matter,” he added.

Elahi said that LHC has saved the historical heritage of Lahore from destruction, adding that Justice Shahid Karim in his additional note has termed protection of historical heritage as fundamental right of the citizens. “This verdict has confirmed our stand that OMT project started without any proper planning, while our 97-kilometre long four-line underground local train project was comparatively cheaper, free from subsidy, corruption, mark up, and defects,” he affirmed.

The PML leader said Shahbaz Sharif had given OMT construction contract to an arms’ manufacturing company while we had awarded the contract to Systra Company, which had constructed a number of big mass transit projects in the world. He said in New Delhi, mass transit project was constructed keeping in mind the historical buildings of Muslims, adding that Shahbaz Sharif did not use wisdom while copying the mass transit project, causing a loss of billions of rupees to Punjab.

Elahi said that every citizen was worried over the alarming increase in kidnapping cases in Punjab, adding that 600 children have been kidnapped in just three to four months in the province. The Supreme Court had taken sou motu notice of the matter but the Punjab government was holding the parents responsible for kidnapping of their children, he added.

“We established Child Protection Bureau on June 22, 2004, to protect the children. If these institutions were allowed to work properly, then such situations would never have been created in Punjab,” he added.

Showing the government advertisements to the media, he said that Shahbaz Sharif was trying to take credit for establishing various institutions that were actually established by PML. “After failing to close our projects, the government was adamant on keeping these institutions ineffective,” he added.

Responding to a question, Elahi said that the energy projects of PML-N are still to produce any result apart from the fact that the rulers were making dollars without any shame.