Buzdar says done away with showoffs' spending after Fawad calls CMs 'kings'

LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar said Friday the government had done away with the showoffs' spending after the federal minister of science and technology, Fawad Chaudhry, called the CMs "kings".

Responding to Chaudhry's criticism, Buzdar said the government considered the Treasury to be "a trust of the nation". He said: "We have done away with the culture of showoffs' extravagant and reckless spending."

The chief minister added that the governments in the past had made use of the Treasury as something they got for free but that the incumbent one was more mindful and understood that it was entrusted to them.

"Unnecessary expenditures have been curtailed to a great extent," he added.

Earlier in the day, Chaudhry had said the chief ministers' discretion over funds was a violation of the Constitution's Article 140-A — which pertains to the local governments and provinces' responsibilities.

The federal minister in a tweet had said the problem did not just pertain to the Punjab government but was about the distribution of resources. 

"Provinces should distribute funds to their districts the same way the centre distributes them to the provinces," he had said.

"The chief ministers think of themselves as kings and that's against public interest," he had added.