LAHORE - Poor reaction to the arrest of Asif Ali Zardari and Hamza Shehbaz shows Imran Khan’s popularity, said Punjab Law Minister Raja Basharat on Wednesday.
Talking to the media at the Punjab Assembly, the minister lauded the federal government for presenting a “good budget”. Raja assured that the Punjab budget would also be public friendly.
About agitation on judges’ reference, the minister said “Chief Justice of Pakistan has clarified that the matter will be purely decided by the judiciary and not by the government.”
He said: “The government has only this point of view that nobody is above the law and accountability for which the patriotic lawyers of Pakistan are also supporting the government. So far, more than 25 bar associations of Punjab have vowed to stay away from a move against the country. Those lawyers’ organizations have also explicitly told that they would not assist a constitutional and judicial matter be converted into a political one. The government greatly honor such positive thinking prevailing in a large faction of lawyers’ community’’
Raja told reporters that the Punjab Assembly was leading the country by passing 17 original and basic legislations during last 8 months and would do more in coming sessions.
Criticising the last government, Raja said in 2008, then government had left Rs100 billion surplus in the kitty but the PML-N left heavy debts
. “Why the country should not face bankruptcy whereof the sitting Prime Minister deliberately helps a NAB accused Finance Minister flee from the country in his official plane? “How ridiculous that the person who once claimed to tear the belly of Zardari to recover looted money, now is pleading for his production order?”, he questioned.
“We want to assure that this government will not leave anything behind that might go contrary to our claims casing disapproval by the public. In the past, billions of rupees from the national exchequer spent to benefit the personal belongings such as construction of drains for sugar mills and roads for personal residences.’’