PM not a burden on kitty like past rulers: Saeed

Apparently responding to a comment of PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz, a federal minister on Friday jumped to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s defence, saying unlike the past rulers the premier neither lives in palatial PM House nor has he declared his personal residence a camp office. 

“The former prime ministers kept many camp offices, besides the palatial PM House, spending huge amounts of the public money in total disregard for the homeless people living on roads,” Federal Minister for Communications Murad Saeed said on Sunday while addressing a press conference.

“Former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and former president Asif Ali Zardari [of the PPP], and former PM Nawaz Sharif and former Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif [of the PML-N] had declared their personal residences as camp offices and got them renovated from public money.

“Shehbaz Sharif spent an amount of Rs8,725.90 million on his Model Town houses in Lahore after declaring them camp offices, while Nawaz Sharif's camp offices cost  Rs4,318.30 million to the public kitty. Similarly, Asif Ali Zardari spent Rs3,164.10 million on his camp office,” he said.

The minister said when Nawaz Sharif was disqualified as prime minister in the wake of the Panama Papers scandal Shehbaz Sharif declared the former's residence at Jati Umra as the chief minister's camp office and deployed 2,700 personnel for Nawaz's security.

While addressing a Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) rally in Bahawalpur on Sunday, Maryam Nawaz took a jibe at Prime Minister Imran Khan and asked him to explain how he maintained his huge mansion at Bani Gala area of Islamabad.

Apparently responding to Maryam, Murad Saeed said: “Prime Minister Imran Khan has no camp offices and he has been residing in his personal house instead of the PM House.”

According to Saeed, the previous rulers also used to embark on foreign tours with big entourages spending millions of dollars but Prime Minister Imran Khan made foreign trips with minimum expenses.

The previous rulers, he said, used to go for treatment abroad on special chartered planes.

“Ironically, all the past rulers while living in big palaces had no concern for the poor segments of society as evident from their lavish spending of public money for their own interests. However, the PM has been striving hard to uplift the poor segments of society.”

Murad Saeed said Prime Minister Imran Khan soon after taking charge of his office, initiated the Ehsaas Programme, which aims at providing relief to the poor – workers and labourers. Contrarily, the former rulers did not take any steps for the welfare of the downtrodden people, he added.

He said the labourers would now be given medical facilities in shelter homes also, besides the facility of stay and meal, which would help them save hard earned money for their families.

“The PTI government has initiated a health insurance programme in which 100% free treatment is being provided to the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. A number of steps for the welfare of the people are taken to make Pakistan a welfare state on the pattern of the first Muslim state of Madina,” he added.