Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) senior central leader Chaudhry Parvez Elahi has labelled farmers package announced by the Prime Minister as 'Nawaz Publicity Package' ahead of local bodies elections. He said, "The package has been reduced to half without consultation with the provinces as out of Rs 341 billion, up to Rs 120 billion are to be contributed by the provinces. Why should the governments of Asif Ali Zardari in Sindh and Imran Khan in KP provide funds of their provinces for this package?" he questioned.
Talking to the media and Members of the National Assembly Tariq Bashir Cheema, Chaudhry Zaheeruddin Khan and Tanvir Azam Cheema at his residence here on Friday, Elahi said, "In the Punjab local polls district co-ordination officers and police are forcibly giving N-League tickets to the independent candidates and will prepare local polls results themselves as well."
He said "the sitting rulers had announced four packages in the past in the name of Youth Loan, Ashiana, Karachi and families of martyrs but like these packages this package for farmers was also not relief package whereas no announcement at all has been made for the growers of wheat, vegetables, sugarcane."
He said two brothers made an announcement with lots of pomp and show but nothing happened. "People are still searching for gold reserves in Rajua as announced by them. Zamindars have been advised to install solar tube-well but the government itself has not yet run a single solar tube-well itself and have invested Rs 16 billion on a solar power plant that only produces 15 megawatts of electricity," he added. Paying tribute to the defenders of the motherland on the martyrdom of 'Namazis', army officer and Jawans in Peshawar, he said that army and Air Force chiefs had rushed to the venue of incident, adding that entire nation was with General Raheel Sharif except "jealous elements".
In response to a question, Zaheeruddin Khan said, "The National Accountability Bureau has not yet contacted him, our hands are clean, we have not indulged in corruption and only served the public."