LAHORE - Governor Punjab Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar has said that there should be no restrictions on opposition rallies as protest was democratic right of all political parties.

Addressing the inauguration ceremony of ‘Solar Project’ by the University of Engineering and Technology (UET) here on Monday, he said the opposition did not have a clear agenda and were divided on priorities.

Provincial Minister for Energy Dr Akhtar Malik and Vice-Chancellor UET Mansoor Sarwar were present on the occasion. 

Governor Punjab said more than 60 universities across Punjab were being converted to solar energy and work was going on expeditiously while the Punjab government had transferred more than 2800 schools in the province to solar energy. 

Sarwar said instructions had been issued to the Vice-Chancellors to listen to the demands of the staff patiently and resolve their issues urgently.

Later, responding to the mediamen, Governor Punjab said “Not the opposition but inflation and bad-governance were the real enemy of the PTI government.” He said instead of working with the government to end inflation and improve governance, it wanted to topple the government.

Governor Punjab said the first step that PTI took after coming into power was to make the country economically stable for an independent and strong foreign policy, adding that the world stands witness to Pakistan’s economic strength. “We have come to power through public vote and the government will complete its constitutional term”, he asserted, adding that Prime Minister Imran Khan will neither resign nor general elections will be held before 2023.

To a question, he said the youth of Insaf Tiger Force will only point out inflation and hoarding while the government agencies will take action. 

Sarwar, in response to a question, said that the agenda of the protest of the opposition parties was not clear yet. 

He said it was true there were problems of inflation in the country but it was the result of tax evasion and wrong policies of the past rulers. 

Provincial Minister for Energy Dr Akhtar Malik, speaking on the occasion, said Punjab was ahead of all other provinces in terms of converting universities and other educational institutions to solar and the PTI was fulfilling the promise of building a new Pakistan as per the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan.