Daily Times

Chief Minister of Punjab Usman Buzdar on Saturday attended a PTI meeting while tragedy unfolded in Murree, a private TV channel reported. He was attending a meeting at the Chief Minister House presided over by Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood, who has been named PTI’s president for the Punjab chapter. Governor Punjab Chaudhry Sarwar; Federal Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry; Provincial Minister of Punjab for Forestry Sibtain Khan; Provincial Minister of Punjab for Housing, Urban Development, and Public Engineering Mian Mehmood ur Rasheed; and close confidante of Prime Minister Imran Khan Usman Dar also attended the meeting, besides other provincial lawmakers. The meeting went on for 2.5 hours during which party-related issues were discussed. It was only after the meeting that Buzdar declared Murree a calamity-hit area,the TV channel reported. Buzdar also directed the Punjab chief secretary to get in touch with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief secretary, after which the Punjab chief secretary also got in touch with Corps Commander Rawalpindi.

Shafqat Mahmood later confirmed that the chief minister and the governor of Punjab were a part of the meeting. Upon being asked by a journalist if the chief minister attended the meeting, Shafqat clarified, “Usman Buzdar left the meeting as soon as Prime Minister Imran Khan advised him to leave.”

It bears mentioning that the provincial government declared Murree a calamity-hit area after at least 22 tourists died in their vehicles on Saturday amid heavy snowfall.

Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed confirmed the death toll, saying the government has sought help from Pakistan Army and other civil-armed forces to rescue the stranded tourists.

The local administration has warned the citizens not to leave their homes in severe weather or turn to Murree as severe weather conditions are likely to continue till late at night.