LAHORE :A citizen on Tuesday filed a petition in the Lahore High Court challenging establishment of Punjab Saaf Pani Company as well as 55 other public companies for being established allegedly in violation of the constitution.
The citizen, Munir Ahmad, moved the petition through Advocate Azhar Siddique and made 55 companies, including Punjab Saaf Pani Company, as respondents in his petition besides federal government, President Office, Prime Minister Office, Punjab governor, Punjab government, Chief Minister Office, NAB, FIA, Anti-Corruption Establishment, Auditor General of Pakistan and Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan.
A few identical petitions had already been there in the court against formation and functioning of these companies. The petitioner said that Punjab government established over 56 public sector companies nine years ago on the pretext of good governance. He said over Rs 150 billions were spent on these companies. Actually this model of governance was the brainchild of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, the petitioner said, adding that he was impressed by the Turkish model of governance. He said it was the reason that Turkish people were hired as consultants in various companies and now they were working on various mega projects.
However, the Punjab government’s expedition of forming companies had faced a huge setback as all these public sector companies had failed to perform their duties, the petitioner alleged.