Punjab Information Minister Fiaz-ul-Hassan Chohan has alleged that the 'so-called' Khadim-e-Alla (former Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif) disbursed a huge amount of government money among his relatives and friends in the name of Saaf Paani project.
While addressing a press conference here on Friday, he said the project started in 2014 but the Sharif government could not provide a single drop of clean water to the people in four years. "Mujtaba Jamal (the brother of Ahsan Iqbal), Asim Qadri (brother of Zaeem Qadri), Munir Chaudhry and Qamar-ul-Islam Raja were accomplices in the scam and that is why they prayed for Shahbaz Sharif's well being," he claimed.
The Minister said that with an initial cost of Rs 300 billion this project was to be completed in April 2018, but even after four years and embezzlement of billions of rupees, the project could not provide a drop of clean water to the people of rural areas. He said in violation of PPRA rules, Shehbaz Sharif approved the most expensive water filtration system. "Then experts had said that this project is expensive and will cost additional billions of rupees, but despite this fact Shehbaz Sharif approved the project to favour his close aides," he added.
According to him, an inquiry committee, headed by a 'corrupt officer' Ahad Cheema, detected Rs 7 billion of corruption against Wasim Ajmal, member of the core committee of the project but this report was hushed up. The PPRA and other rules were not even followed for the hiring of a contractor for the project. "The contract for the Saaf Paani project was given to a foreign company in complete violation of the PPRA rules. In order to adjust Sharif's favourite bureaucrats, the project was further divided into two categories, PSP North and PSP South; and they were given high salaries.