Eection promises: Gilani says there’s no stopping Seraiki province

Says Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz sees Seraiki province as ‘a threat to their sultanate’.

MULTAN:

“The Seraiki province will be part of the Pakistan Peoples Party’s manifesto, if the bill is rejected in the National Assembly,” former prime minster Yousaf Raza Gilani said on Friday.

He was addressing a press conference to talk about the proposed Seraiki province.

Talking about the formation of new provinces, Gilani said that 70 senators had voted for the amendment. He said unfortunately the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz saw the Seraiki province as “a threat to their sultanate”.

He said a nation could not be bought with laptops and solar lamps.

“People never forget those, who ignore them,” he said.

The funds used on laptop schemes, he said, could have been used to change the lives of millions of Pakistanis. He said the PPP would gift a Seraiki province to the people and this will change their lives for the better.

Answering a question, Gilani said that the PPP had both long- and short-term plans to end energy crisis. This, he said, would be achieved in five years if the PPP was voted into power.

“The PML-N keeps accusing the PPP of not doing enough to overcome the energy crises. Can they tell us how many watts have they produced for the Punjab?”

He said the PML-N had asked the people to give them two years ‘to end energy crises.

“They are trying to buy this time to distribute water and power resources among the opportunists.”

He said that the PML-N manifesto was nothing but a ticket to take the country towards decline.

He alleged that the PML-N lacked a political vision and their policies were mostly borrowed from other parties. He claimed that the PPP was the only political party with “solid foundations and policies”.

Answering a question about terrorism, Gilani said it was no longer only Pakistan’s problem. Today, he said, several countries were fighting against extremism and terrorism.

In Pakistan, however, he said the problem would remain a challenge for the new government. He urged the people to vote for government that was clear about the issue.

Several PPP regional members, including MPA Usman Bhatti, MPA Amir Dogar and Khwaja Rizwan Alam, the media coordinator (South Punjab) to PM Raja Pervez Ashraf, were also present.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 9^th, 2013.