Who is Niazi fooling?: Bilawal says Imran will again vote for PPP: Shahbaz

TOBA TEK SINGH: Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has said Niazi Sahib (Imran Khan) can’t fool anyone as Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has himself confirmed that Imran Khan had voted for the PPP deputy chairman candidate in the Senate elections and he will again vote for the PPP after general elections this year.

Addressing a public meeting in Kamalia on Sunday, he said there was no need for any further evidence after Bilawal Zardari mentioned that Imran Khan, who used to say that he would not sit with the PPP, had voted for the PPP candidate in the Senate elections.

He said that means Imran Khan was making fake speeches against the PPP and Asif Ali Zardari. The chief minister said the politics of Tehreek-e-Insaf was based on chaos, sit-ins, lockdowns, jeopardising organisations, attacking parliament, abuses, and allegations and offensive remarks against opponents. However, he added, the PML-N would bury the negative politics of PTI forever if the public voted it in the upcoming elections to serve the public again.

The CM said Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan not only conspired against Nawaz Sharif but also against 220 million people of the country by staging his Islamabad sit-in in 2014.

He said Imran created hurdles in the way of development of the country by staging dharnas and lockdown. He said the sit-in delayed Chinese president's Pakistan visit by seven months and consequent signing of the Gwadar port and other agreements between the two countries.

He said everyone could commit mistakes but he could swear that Nawaz Sharif and he had always served the country with honesty. The CM said Pakistan Muslim League-N government spent huge amount of Rs12.5 billion on different development projects in Toba district during the last five years. If the people would again vote the PML-N into power, Toba district would be developed like Faisalabad.

He said a mega water supply project worth Rs900 million was recently completed by his government for the Toba people while buildings of three girl colleges were also built at Sindhilianwaali, Rajana and Pirmahal.

He listed various development schemes completed by the PML-N provincial and federal governments in the last five years. He said he, as the chief minister of Punjab, did his best for the people of Punjab during the nine-and-a-half years PML-N rule. He said if the PML-N would again come into power after 2018 elections, Pakistan would be developed as a great country and no nation would be able to disgrace its passport.

He said his government provided interest-free loans worth millions to farmers of Toba district and in the next term of government, jobs would be provided to unemployed youth. He said when the PML-N came into power in 2013, the electricity loadshedding of 22 hours a day was going on. But the PML-N government ended it from the country.

The chief minister also condemned Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his government’s atrocities against innocent Kashmiris. He said the day was not far away when the sacrifices of Kashmiris would bear fruit and Kashmir would become part of Pakistan.

Meanwhile, strict security arrangements were adopted by the police in and around the public meeting venue at the Government High School No 1 at Kamalia. People were kept 100 feet away from the stage while barbed wire was erected to restrain people from reaching the stage area.

Six parliamentarians of a group of PML-N had boycotted the public meeting of CM. They included minister of state for communication Junaid Anwar Chaudhry, provincial counter-terrorism minister Col (retd) Sardar Ayub Khan Gadhi, provincial parliamentary secretary for population welfare department Amjad Ali Javed, provincial parliamentary secretary for revenue department Begum Nazia Raheel Gujjar and MPAs Malik Qadeer Awan and Mian Muhammad Rafiq. The show was arranged by only two MNAs Khalid Javed Warraich (Gojra) and Chaudhry Asadur Rehman (Kamalia) and an MPA from Pirmahal Pir Qutal Ali Baba. They led big rallies from their areas to the public meeting venue.

Addressing a press conference at Kamalia municipal committee, Chairman Malik Muhammad Sharif said in his office on Sunday that it was his right as the MC chairman to present a welcome address to the CM. But he was not invited to the public meeting due to the rift in the ranks of the PML-N. He said he had already written a letter to the CM in which he had apprised him about the excesses of the organisers of the public meeting.