CM Elahi reiterates support for Imran

Umar holds incumbent regime responsible for current wheat crisis in country

LAHORE:

Days after expressing apprehensions over the dissolution of the Punjab Assembly, Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi on Monday reiterated his support for PTI Chairman and former premier Imran Khan, saying “he is our leader and we will stand together in every decision”.

The Punjab CM made these remarks in a meeting with the PTI chief in Lahore. PML-Q leader Rasikh Elahi was also present.

“Our unity is stronger than ever,” Elahi observed.

During the meeting, both the leaders discussed a wide range of issues, including the current political situation and the steps taken by the Punjab government to provide relief to the people of the province.

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They also deliberated on the matter related to the vote of confidence and the ongoing session of the Punjab Assembly.

The PTI chief said that the PML-N led coalition government had “destroyed” the economy within a few months. “The inflation is at an all-time high and these so-called experts have miserably failed to manage the economy,” he added.

On the Climate Resilience Conference, Imran said the incumbent rulers were not “ashamed” to go to Geneva with a huge entourage to “beg for money”, adding that “these incompetent rulers will return home empty-handed”.

He warned that the situation would get serious if the economy was not fixed immediately, saying: “The rulers blinded by the lust for power have brought a storm of inflation.”

Imran expressed his satisfaction over the Punjab government’s performance, noting that it was “moving in the right direction”.

Meanwhile, on the issue of flour shortage, Elahi told Imran that the Punjab government had doubled the quota of wheat to the mills to meet the needs of the people.

The CM castigated the coalition government at the Centre, saying: “The senseless gang imposed on the nation has made the life of the poor man miserable.

“Instead of focusing on resolving the problems of the common man, these people are busy clearing the corruption cases filed against them.”

He said that the global financial institutions had lost faith in the current government, adding that the focus of the Punjab government was the welfare of the common man.

Meanwhile, PTI Secretary General Asad Umar held the incumbent PDM regime responsible for the current wheat crisis in the country, saying that former Punjab chief minister Hamza Shahbaz, who remained in office from April 30 - July 26, 2022, had “wrongly ordered” early release of the commodity from the government stocks in May when open markets were flooded with the staple commodity.

“This political decision of the PML-N government caused shortage of wheat in the province (Punjab),” Umar said while addressing the media in Lahore on Monday.

The PTI leader observed that it had never happened in the history that any provincial government issued wheat from strategic stocks after a month of the new crop.

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Umar said Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah had announced wheat support price of Rs4,000 per maund before the wheat sowing season.

“The Sindh government’s announcement of highest-ever wheat support price had given a push to wheat rates in open markets which had touched Rs5,000 in different markets,” he noted.

Umar said political decisions of the PDM parties resulted in food crisis in the country.

The PTI senior leader maintained that the “imported rulers” were focused on making fake cases against the PTI chief.

Though, the Punjab government, he highlighted, was doing its best to rein in the wheat flour crisis but the people should know that it was the federal government’s responsibility to ensure supply and import of essential commodities, he added.

Separately, the outgoing British High Commissioner, Christian Turner, called on the PTI chairman and discussed matters of mutual interest.