Daily Times

Punjab government spokesperson Fayyaz-ul-Hassan Chohan Thursday said the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government was fully focusing on serving masses and utilising all resources were for the public welfare.

Addressing a press conference here, he said the previous Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) government spent used more than Rs 50 billion funds for personal projection, and now its leadership had fled the country and staying abroad. However, he added, the PTI government did not believe in personal projection at all, and all its energies were being used for public welfare.

Highlighting the PTI government’s three-year performance, the spokesperson said that holistic reforms had been introduced besides focusing on composite development, unlike in the past when development funds of other cities were used in mega cities and even genuine needs of far-flung areas and small cities were ignored. The PTI government in Punjab, led by Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar, had been working wholeheartedly for the uplift of masses as a number of initiatives were taken in that regard.

He said 46 meetings of the provincial cabinet had been held in three years of the PTI government, compared to only 19 meetings during the same period in the previous government, which depicted activeness of the incumbent government.

The Punjab government’s role in coping with Covid-19 pandemic had been praised by other provincial governments as well and measures taken by the Punjab government were also followed by the other provinces in fight against the pandemic. He said that provision of health cards was a unique initiative of the PTI government, aimed at ensuring health facilities to everyone and in this connection, the provincial government had distributed cards among 70 per cent families of the province.

Chohan said various projects had been launched by the government to ensure medical facilities to people and new hospitals were being established in far-flung areas. More than 32,000 doctors, nurses, paramedics and other staff was recruited by the present government to fulfill needs of the medical staff at hospitals and other facilities.

To promote higher education, the spokesperson said that new universities were being established and it was commitment of the government to establish a university in every district. He said work on establishment of 21 new universities was under way in the province. Along with it, he mentioned that a total of 162 new colleges were being established in the province out of which, 86 have been built whereas work on 76 others was under way.

Likewise, 27,000 government schools have been upgraded and 40 per cent of those schools were in south Punjab. He said the first-ever e-transfer policy was introduced by the Education Department providing online facilities to hundreds of thousands of female and male teachers for their transfer and posting.

Fayyaz-ul-Hassan said the government led a drive against the land grabbers and an area of more than 180,000 acres had been acquired and cost of the land was equal to around Rs462 billion.

He said that first-ever district development package had been devised by the government worth Rs 360 billion which would also address grievances of the neglected areas. The PTI government was determined to address sense of deprivations of the south Punjab and taking steps accordingly, which included establishment of south Punjab secretariat, fixation of 35 per cent of the total budget for south Punjab, and fixation of job quota at 32 per cent for them.

It was the first government which fixed the support price of wheat and sugarcane at Rs 1,800 and Rs 200, respectively to give due share to farmers and 100 per cent payments were also ensured to them, he added.

He said that easy loans and subsidies were provided to small-scale farmers for their uplift. Under the Ehsaas programme, he said that shelter homes were established in the province and cash amounts were distributed among the needy. For the first time in the history of the province, he said that universal number plates were introduce for vehicles which brought transparency in the system.

In the Police Department, he said that 13,000 recruitments were made and other steps were taken to improve its performance. All high-profile cases during the period were investigated in days and arrests were made including motorway and Greater Iqbal Park incident.