Bidding on for upcoming Senate election: PM

SAHIWAL:

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday commended Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and his team on successfully tackling “Lahore's biggest land grabbers" in an apparent reference to recent demolition of the “illegally constructed” residence of former PML-N MPA Saiful Malook Khokhar.

“People say he [Buzdar] is a shy public official and does not give speeches. But this is the job he does. And these are the kind of issues that need to be tackled,” Imran Khan said during his day-long visit to Punjab’s Sahiwal division.

Talking with reference to the governmental bill to introduce open ballot mode in the Senate polls, Imran said for the last 30 years he had seen the “auction of lawmakers” to buy their votes for Senate candidates.

“After the last Senate election, the PTI expelled its 20 members, who were found to have sold their votes for Rs50 million each. All the political leaders know about the practice.

"The bidding [for the upcoming Senate election] has already started. We also know how much money is being offered to the assembly members to buy their loyalties. We also know a political leader, who has been collecting money to buy the votes," he said.

Calling it treason, the prime minister questioned whether the senator, who has bought his seat, will not make money once he is elected. "In which democracy, the parliamentarians sell their votes?" he asked.

Imran said after demolition of the Khokhar Palace, the PML-N’s “self-proclaimed future leader” Maryam Nawaz held a news conference just to support the land mafia without bothering to know the fact that they had occupied state land worth Rs1.3 billion.

“The mafia had occupied the land during tenure of the last PML-N government. The mafia later also obliged the party leadership. When a prime minister backs a mafia he loses his moral authority to forbid the administration as well as the police to do the same,” the premier added.

According to the premier, no country in the world has progressed without ensuring the rule of law. "We will not pardon the big robbers. No NRO [reprieve] will be given. We will not forgive the land grabbers thriving under them [political leaders]," the premier added.

Imran directed the authorities concerned to take strict action against the mafia involved in illegal occupation of land all across Punjab “so as to stop exploitation of the poor and weaker segments of society”.

The prime minister also ordered the local administration to hold public hearings every month for resolution of the people’s issues on priority basis during a meeting with the PTI parliamentarians and members in Sahiwal division.

Talking to the media in Sahiwal, the prime minister said the PTI government was engaged in a historic battle to establish rule of law and bring to task the plunderers, “who considered themselves above law”.

"This is a historic battle for the rule of law. These thieves consider themselves above the law. This historic battle will ensure the rule of law and put the dacoits in jail, which is their real abode," he said.

According to Imran, the PML-N leaders used to get the court verdicts in their favour either by bribing the judges or by ransacking the Supreme Court. “They [PML-N] just accept the court decisions that favour them.”

Referring to the ongoing hearing of a foreign funding case, the PM reiterated that the opposition parties wanted to trap the ruling PTI by lodging a complaint in the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) but now they have themselves got trapped in the case.

"We want the ECP to take this case to its logical end. It should scrutinize the funding of all political parties. I foresee that they [ECP] will find that only one party, the PTI, has the complete record –names and addresses – of around 40,000 donors.

“Anyone could contact those donors to ask whether they had donated money to the PTI or not. I challenge the opposition parties to furnish details of just 100 of their donors, let alone 1,000 donors.

"This will also expose who had got funding from Osama bin Laden. There is a public statement of [ISI former spy] Khalid Khwaja's wife in this regard," the premier said in reference to a scandal pertaining to PML-N’s alleged funding by al Qaeda former chief to topple the PPP government.

Earlier, the prime minister also fired a broadside at JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and asked as to how Fazl managed to make properties worth billions of rupees.

“No past government touched him ever either because he had been part of that setup or because they feared he would issue a fatwa against them,” he said.

Sahiwal projects

During the visit, Prime Minister Imran Khan started Rs18 billion development projects for the provision of basic amenities – food, clean water, sewerage system, hospital, park – in Sahiwal.

The projects, initiated under the Punjab Intermediate Cities Improvement Investment Programme, have the potential of fulfilling the needs of clear water and sewerage for the next 25 years.

The prime minister also laid the foundation stone for the construction of a world class cardiology and cardiac surgery block at Sahiwal’s district headquarters hospital. The cardiology block will help provide the healthcare facilities of international standards to the local people in their area.

The prime minister also inaugurated the Solid Waste Segregation, Treatment and Disposal project. He also laid the foundation of Solid Waste Management Academy. Imran Khan inaugurated "Sarayai Qutub" -- a langar khana established near the shrine of Baba Fareeduddin Ganjshakar in Pakpattan.

WITH INPUT FROM APP