PPP returns fire at PML-N on dengue
Punjab Assembly session requisitioned to discuss public health crisis.
LAHORE:
The Pakistan Peoples Party has submitted a requisition in the Punjab Assembly Secretariat for a session devoted to dengue, said PA Opposition Leader Raja Riaz on Wednesday.
Talking to reporters at the PA building, Riaz said that the PPP would raise the issues of substandard insecticide and hospital facilities during the dengue discussion. He said that the opposition had offered the government its unconditional support for the campaign against dengue, but it ignored them.
Riaz also responded to the chief minister’s recent criticism of President Asif Zardari, saying if Shahbaz Sharif did not accept a legally-elected president, he did not accept Sharif as chief minister.
He said that the Punjab government was trying to divert attention from its “incompetent” handling of the dengue epidemic by pointing the finger at the federal government for extra-ordinary load-shedding in Punjab in the last week.
“Instead of running smear campaigns, the chief minister should make concrete proposals about how to end the energy crisis,” he said.
Riaz said that the federal government had inherited the power shortage from its predecessor.
“The problem cannot be resolved overnight,” he said, but the PPP government would set up more power plants to overcome the shortage.
The Pakistan Peoples Party has submitted a requisition in the Punjab Assembly Secretariat for a session devoted to dengue, said PA Opposition Leader Raja Riaz on Wednesday.
Talking to reporters at the PA building, Riaz said that the PPP would raise the issues of substandard insecticide and hospital facilities during the dengue discussion. He said that the opposition had offered the government its unconditional support for the campaign against dengue, but it ignored them.
Riaz also responded to the chief minister’s recent criticism of President Asif Zardari, saying if Shahbaz Sharif did not accept a legally-elected president, he did not accept Sharif as chief minister.
He said that the Punjab government was trying to divert attention from its “incompetent” handling of the dengue epidemic by pointing the finger at the federal government for extra-ordinary load-shedding in Punjab in the last week.
“Instead of running smear campaigns, the chief minister should make concrete proposals about how to end the energy crisis,” he said.
Riaz said that the federal government had inherited the power shortage from its predecessor.
“The problem cannot be resolved overnight,” he said, but the PPP government would set up more power plants to overcome the shortage.
He charged Nawaz Sharif with “conspiring against the federal government” ahead of the Senate elections. He said the two-time former prime minister did not really believe in democracy.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 6th, 2011.