Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Tuesday said the NAB is proactively working in the province of Punjab, while the Supreme Court is also taking notice of everything with great attention and we welcome it. While addressing the ceremony of cheques distribution under the Chief Minister's Self Employment Scheme at Aiwan-e-Iqbal here on Tuesday, Shahbaz said, "The eagle eyes of state institutions are focused at Punjab. But I say that if a corruption of even a single penny is proved against me during the last ten years in the development projects then I would be fully accountable to the people."
He said, "Those who have waived off loans worth billions of rupees and the politicians who are fully drenched in corruption are giving statements against corruption and are advising the nation about honesty," he said, adding: "The state institutions are active against corruption and we welcome it. However, they should give attention to the recovery of looted money of the nation." On one side, if corruption is being ignored and on the other side, eagle eyes are fixed then this double standard cannot work, he maintained. Water and fire cannot combine together and if you have taken responsibility of elimination of corruption then it is a good thing and it should be done indiscriminately, he asserted.
Shahbaz said the elections are nearer, therefore, political opponents are showing their political jugglery to the people. The motto of Imran Niazi is to "stage sit-ins and not to do any work" while the purpose of Asif Zardari is "marsoon marsoon kam na karsoon." He said, "We have saved billions of rupees of the poor nation in development projects and there is no other example of such savings in development projects during the last 70 years."
Shahbaz said that Orange Line Metro Train is a project of China and there is G2G agreement about this scheme under which tendering process is not done. "I wrote a letter to the Chinese government that we want to initiate tendering in this project. The company gave the lowest bidding of Rs 210 billion in the tendering process. We negotiated with this company and the project cost was further decreased to Rs 165 billion. This way, Rs 45 billion were saved and after it, the civil works was awarded to Pakistani companies and Rs 9 billion were further saved as a result of negotiations with them. A total of Rs 65 billion was saved in this project. What the poor nation can be further served with, he inquired.
He said the PTI got this project delayed for 22 months and its revenge has been fully taken by the people of Lahore two days earlier. "Our political opponents got an opportunity of public service in their provinces but they did nothing there. Not even a single penny was given to anybody in KPK as interest-free loan and on the other side; billions of rupees were usurped instead of giving interest-free loans in Sindh province," he said.
He added that Imran Niazi calls Metro Bus Service of Lahore a "jangla bus" and claims that if they get grant or funds then educational institutions and hospitals will be built instead of metro bus. He (Imran) has not built educational institutions nor is any hospital in his province and the city of Peshawar also dug in name of metro bus. I have stated during my recent Peshawar visit that if the people of KPK given an opportunity to us then this project will be completed in just five months, he added.
Shahbaz said that the PML-N government has set up 5000 megawatt electricity projects with its own resources along with initiation of gigantic CPEC. 1150 megawatt electricity is produced by Bhikki Power Plant while 1250 megawatt power is produced by Haweli Bahadar Shah Plant. Similarly, 1200 megawatt Balloki Power Plant will soon start producing electricity. The Punjab government is also establishing 1200 megawatt project in Haveli Bahadur Shah which will be completed at the end of this year. On the other side, Neelum Jhelum Power Plant which was still incomplete even after the passage of 20 years has been completed by the incumbent government. Rs 500 billion have been spent on this 985 megawatt power plant, he said.
"We have completed energy projects at the half of this price. Guddu Power Plant was set up during the tenure of Zardari and we have set up similar plant at the half price after eight years," he said, adding: "Rs 150 billion have been saved in energy projects. We have transformed the nation's dreams into reality and spent every penny for public welfare. If we are given an opportunity again then Pakistan will be made a country of Quaid and Iqbal in the real sense during the next five years and there would be no poverty and unemployment.
He said that loans worth over Rs 46 billion have been distributed under the Chief Minister's Self Employment Scheme. About 12 million most needy people have directly or indirectly benefitted from this scheme and the loans return ratio has remained 99.9%. On one side, there are brave sons and daughters of the nation who have returned every penny of the interest-free loans and on the contrary, the elite has got its mega loans worth billions of rupees waived off which is a great cruelty with the poor nation, he said.
Executive Director Akhuwat Dr Amjad Saqib also spoke on the occasion and CM distributed cheques of interest-free loans to the needy persons. Speaker Punjab Assembly, provincial ministers, Assembly members, chief secretary, intellectuals and others were present on the occasion.
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