LAHORE - Refuting the allegations levelled by PTI Chairman Imran Khan about the offer of Rs 10 billion by him, Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif yesterday urged the Supreme Court of Pakistan to take cognizance to determine whether Khan meets the standard of Sadiq and Ameen.
The chief minister strongly denied the charges and said the PTI chairman set record of telling lies and allegations in politics after setting records in cricket. It is totally false and unfounded that he made him offer through a friend in Dubai to get Rs 10 billion in return for keeping mum on the Panama verdict, he said. The chief minister said he reserved the right to move the court of law, but he would urge the apex court to take notice of Khan’s accusations to ascertain how much he (Imran Khan) was Sadiq and Ameen.
He said this while addressing a ceremony held to distribute laptops in the 4th phase of this programme here. In the previous three phases, 310,000 laptops were given away to the talented students. In the current phase, 115,000 laptops will be given to the students of both the genders purely on merit. Not only students of the Punjab but also those of other provinces will be among the recipients of laptops.
The chief minister lambasted Imran and Asif Ali Zardari, terming them enemies of the progress and development agenda of the PML-N government. “Niazi Sahib (Imran) is blocking public welfare projects while Zardari Sahib is responsible for pushing the country towards energy crisis and now is trying the get the credit of CPEC project,” he said. “Had the Chinese government trusted Zardari Sahib about the development of the CPEC, a shrewd person like him would not have forgotten to lay the foundation stone of Gawadar port during his term.
He said elites don’t want change in the fate of the poor. “But it won’t happen now in Pakistan of Quaid-e-Azam and Iqbal as I have vowed to deliver best higher education facilities to every child of the province.” He said he adopted the title of Khadim-e-Punjab not for political point scoring but for serving people and he will live up to that commitment. He said the PM is due to open 1,320MW coal power project in Sahiwal next month.
On Laptops distribution programme, the chief minister said when he initiated this scheme back in 2011, his adversaries dubbed it a ploy on his part to earn the vote but the time proved that the Punjab government really wanted to empower the youth and equip them with the latest knowledge in the world as it was the only means to keep pace with the fast changing world in science and technology. “Our programme also aimed at taking away guns from the hands of the youth and hand them over knowledge of the day so as to make them constructive citizens contributing to the national development and prosperity of the country in a big way,” Shehbaz said.
He also mentioned Rs 100 billion Kisan Package and computerization of 700 police stations. All this was done by the government to promote information technology.