ISLAMABAD - Federal Minister for Communications and Postal Services Murad Saeed on Sunday said in a total contrast to the former rulers, Prime Minister Imran Khan had no camp office and had been residing in his personal house instead of the PM House.
The former prime ministers maintained many camp offices, besides the palatial PM House, spending huge amount of the public money in total disregard for the homeless people living on roads, he said while addressing a press conference here.
Murad Saeed said the previous rulers used to embark on foreign tours with big entourages costing millions of dollars to the public exchequer, Prime Minister Imran Khan made the trips abroad with minimum expenses.
The prime minister, he said, had been striving hard to uplift the poor segments of society. On the contrary, the opposition parties were out to protect the corruption of their leadership, he added.
The opposition’s politics of self interests had been rejected by the people, Murad Saeed said.
The minister said former prime minister Yusaf Raza Gilani and ex-president Asif Ali Zardari (of Pakistan Peoples Party), and former PM Nawaz Sharif and former Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif (of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz) had declared their personal residences as camp offices and got them renovated from public money.
All of them spent lavishly on the maintenance of camp offices and security from the public exchequer, he added.
Murad Saeed said Shehbaz Sharif had spent an amount of Rs 8,725.90 million on his Model Town houses in Lahore after declaring them as camp offices, while Nawaz Sharif’s camp offices cost Rs 4,318.30 million to the public kitty.
Similarly, Asif Ali Zardari spent the public money of Rs 3,164.10 million on his camp office, he added.
The minister said when Nawaz Sharif was disqualified as prime minister after the Panama Papers leak, Shehbaz Sharif declared the former’s residence (at Jati Umra) as the chief minister’s camp office with deployment of 2,700 personnel for his (Nawaz’s) security.
The previous rulers used to go for treatment abroad on special chartered planes, he added. Ironically, all the past rulers while living in big palace had no concern for the poor segments of the society as evident from their lavish spending of public money for their own interests, he remarked.
Murad Saeed said Prime Minister Imran Khan soon after taking charge of the office, initiated the Ehsaas Programme, which aimed at providing relief to poor, workers and labourers. Contrarily, the former rulers did not take any steps for the welfare of downtrodden people, he added.
He said the poor labourers would now be given medical facilities in shelter homes also, besides the facility of stay and meal, which would help them save hard earned money for their families.
He said the PTI government had initiated the health insurance programme in which 100 per cent free treatment was provided to the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. A number of steps for the welfare of the people were taken to make Pakistan a welfare state on the pattern of Madina as per the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan, he added.
He said the prime minister also exposed the anti-Muslim steps taken by Indian PM Narendra Modi before the world. In fact he had become an ambassador of Kashmiris and a spokesperson of Islam.
The minister also played a video of Sehat Insaf Card beneficiaries praising Prime Minister Imran Khan for launching the health card scheme.\932
