Punjab chief minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif on Friday said if Pakistan was to be saved, the people would have to get rid of the Zardari gang who, he said, had given anything to the masses except loadshedding, inflation, poverty, and unemployment.

The chief minister said now that the corrupt gang had been unmasked, the nation would make the Zardari gang accountable for its deeds in the forthcoming general elections. He said corruption, nepotism and favoritism culture had brought the country to the brink of disaster, while politics and democracy had been defamed in the name of reconciliation. He said the failure of incompetent and corrupt government could not be termed the failure of democratic system.

Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif said that people were living in darkness while the loot, plunder and dark deeds of “Ali Baba & Forty Thieves” were continuing, setting new records of corruption.

The chief minister was talking to parliamentarians, including Member National Assembly Haji Akram Ansari and Members Provincial Assembly Haji Muhammad Yaqoob Sheikh, Rao Kashif Raheem Khan, Shehryar Riaz and Mian Yawar Zaman who called on him.

Talking to the public representatives, the chief minister said the goal of progress and prosperity of the country could only be achieved by the provision of basic education and health facilities. The goal, he added, could be achieved if a crusade was waged against corruption, merit promoted and economic exploitation eliminated. He said the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was striving vigorously to bring an end to the culture of injustice, corruption, nepotism and favoritism. To free the country of the ills, he pledged, was the basic aim of the politics of the PML-N.

The CM said the Punjab government had diverted resources towards the provision of basic facilities and uplift of the living standard of the poor. He said mega development projects had been completed, especially in the less-developed areas of the province, during the last four years, which had benefited the common man. He said the provision of education, health, drinking water and home to the homeless, and generation of new employment opportunities for the common man was the top priority of the Punjab government which also aimed at ensuring prosperity of farmers.

He said the Punjab government had introduced long-term reforms in education, health, agriculture and social sectors, which had provided relief to the common man.

During Ramzan, Shahbaz Sharif said, a subsidy of four billion rupees had been given to provide relief to the common man. For the purpose, Ramzan Bazars had also been set up in all districts of the province where people were being provided quality flour, pulses and other essentials at subsidized rates, he added.

He said that self-employment scheme had been launched for the youth to enable them to start their own business for which interest-free loans were being provided. He said an internship program was also being initiated, under which 50,000 youth would be provided opportunities to work in different departments. He said that merit was of basic importance in all civilized societies and the Punjab government was strictly following the merit policy, and more than 70,000 teachers had been recruited purely on merit. To ensure timely and transparent completion of development projects, an effective system of the monitoring had been put in place, he claimed.

The CM called upon the elected representatives to keep a vigilant eye on the quality of development projects and play their effective role in timely completion of these projects in their respective constituencies. The elected representatives assured the CM that they would not tolerate corruption and that development projects would be completed on time.