People want development, not agitation: Shahbaz

Says struggle under PM’s leadership against elements desirous of anarchy is a success; they will face another failure in 2018

LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has said the people were very well aware of the elements who set records of corruption and plunder during their regimes and had rejected the negative politics of anti-development elements.

“The people, by remaining aloof to the politics of agitation of such elements, have proved that they want development and solution to their problems,” said the chief minister. He said on the one hand there were elements who created darkness and on the other hand anarchists who had enslaved the nation through their negative politics.

“Our struggle under the leadership of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been successful against the elements desirous of chaos and anarchy and the time has come to rescue the country out of darkness,” he said during a meeting with Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique on Tuesday. Shahbaz said the elements trying to obstruct the journey of development through sit-in politics would face another failure in 2018. The 200 million people would never forgive the elements making the nation hostage to shadows, he remarked.

He said the efforts under the prime minister’s leadership to move the country on the road to development had started bearing fruit, adding that the economy, which was earlier ruined due to the corruption of the past rulers, had been strengthened. 

He said the people had benefited from mega projects completed in Pakistan, especially in Punjab. On Tuesday, the chief minister also paid a surprise visit to Pakistan’s pioneering state-of-the-art Shehar-e-Khamoshan model graveyard which has been established at Kahna Nau near the provincial metropolis.

He inspected different facilities – including rooms for ablution and cold storage facilities for bodies. Speaking on the occasion, Shahbaz said the graveyard established over an area of around 90 kanals at a cost of around Rs 150 million had been opened for funeral purposes in the holy month of Ramazan. The need for additional graveyards, he added, was being felt with increase in population for quite a long time.

The construction of Shehar-e-Khamoshan in Multan, Faisalabad and Sargodha was in progress, while similar graveyards would also be established in other cities as well. The chief minister commended the performance of CM’s Strategic Reforms Unit DG Salman Sufi – who is also the acting DG of Punjab Shehar-e-Khamoshan Authority – and his team.

Earlier, Sufi briefed Shahbaz on the project, while the head of Jamia Naeemia, Maulana Raghib Naeemi, offered a special prayer. On the occasion, famous industrialist Tariq Sufi donated two ambulances for Shehar-e-Khamoshan and presented their keys to Shahbaz.

Separately, the chief minister the Pakistan cricket members calling them ‘Champion of the Champions’ and said the players, who had given the gift of Champions Trophy to the nation, were the heroes for everyone.

In a statement, he said the warm reception of the team was a proof that the nation welcomed the heroes with open arms. The players were the real champions who had silenced the critics with their performance, he added.