Pervez Elahi lashes out at Sharif brothers

Says loans were Rs267bn during our govt in Punjab and now they have increased to Rs721bn.

LAHORE: The Sharif brothers have made Pakistan sunk by taking massive loans as currently every newborn in Punjab is under debt as the loans of the province were to be paid by 2046.

This was stated by Pakistan Muslim League (PML) senior leader and former Deputy Prime Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi.

He was addressing a press conference along with MPAs Vickas Mokal, Shah Muhammad Khagga, Khadeeja Farooqui and Mian Munir at his residence on Sunday.

Parvez said that more than half of development funds allocated for education, health and agriculture would be utilised on orange line project like last year. He added that loans were Rs267 billion during our government in Punjab and now they had increased to Rs721 billion.

He said that claimants of historical development budgets had allocated Rs550 billion in the last budget out of which only Rs264 billion had been utilised. He said that government’s and company’s ownership along with other details were being hidden due to no transparency.



He said that only Rs3. 8 billion from Rs10 billion in energy sector, Rs33 billion out of Rs63 billion in educational development, Rs22 billion out of Rs47 billion in secondary schools, Rs360 million out of Rs1. 88 billion in child care centres of primary schools children were spent and the remaining amounts were diverted to the orange line project.

Proof of which was the loan of Rs10 billion given to LDA for orange line and not including it in the budget books, he added.

He said that Rs29. 62 billion had been utilised in the last ten months in the health sector, but no progress was visible as there were neither beds nor ventilators and medicines in the hospitals across the province.

Pervez said that only Rs18.75 billion out of Rs72. 40 billion were spent on livestock, irrigation and food.

He termed the development fund as election purchase fund. In reply to a question on the claim of budget being tax free, he said that this was their policy as quite heavy taxes had been imposed in the last eight years.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 5^th, 2017.