Federal government behaving like a stepmother: Sharif
Sharif was speaking at Minar-e-Pakistan, where he had set up his camp office to protest against the ongoing power crisis in the province.
The chief minister had reached his camp office at Minar-e-Pakistan through public transport from his residence at Model Colony to chair the provincial cabinet meeting.
The chief minister discussed issues related to the power crisis and budget 2012 in the provincial cabinet meeting that went on for two hours.
The chief minister asked the chief secretary to speak to the federal government about the circular debt.
He said, “I request with my hands folded before them [the federal governement] to not cause any harm to the protesters.”
Sharif further said the fact that a population that pays millions of rupees in taxes is deprived of electricity is shameful.
He further directed all provincial ministers to leave their air-conditioned offices and set up camps in protest against unscheduled loadshedding.
Woman barred from meeting Sharif
After the Provincial Cabinet Meeting by Sharif, a few protesters were called in the camp office. During the meeting, dozens of protesting women tried to barge inside the office.
One of the protesters, Shahida Bilqis, got involved in a fist fight with the security officer when she was not allowed inside the camp office.
Meeting with disappointment, the woman started slapping herself and fainted as a result.
Following this incident, the women were allowed in the office where Khawaja Salman Rafique, the Special Assistant of the chief minister, ensured that their grievances will be shortly addressed.
'Set up power plants, not camps'
Imtiaz Safdar Warraich, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Punjab President and Interior State Minister, remarked that that electricity is produced by setting up power plants instead of protest camps.
Speaking to the media at Lahore Press Club, Warraich said that if the Punjab chief minister thinks that there is an energy crisis in the province, then why has he not initiated any program for the cause.
He added that the people would not have been suffering if the Punjab government had initiated better programs instead of the laptop and the ‘Sasti roti’ scheme.
COMMENTS (4)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
Noora Kushti - We would have appreciated if we had heard this for last four years. Hearing this on election year raise eyebrows. Noora Kushti part 1000.
This is how un-cooprative, disobedient and disallegiance should be treated. Full Stop.
Be watchful of of your personal interests CM!!! you are highly responsible for the present PMLN deteriorated condition!
I think they are a part of election campaign but infact Shahbaz Sharif is now doing well. In my previous visit of Lahore i heard only one party name and that was PTI and now my recent visit have proved that PMLN is gaining momentum and they are considering PTI a real threat and now PMLN is gearing up for as much development as possible to win back votes and actually they are wooing voters back to PMLN. The people are disappointed by PTI in recent power crisis where PTI is nowhere to be seen while PMLN is really leading upfront.