Sindh in tatters but Zardari is prosperous: Shahbaz

MATIARI/CHAKWAL/LAHORE: PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif on Tuesday said Sindh was in shambles but PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari was prosperous.

“It is sad to see the state of roads, schools, and hospitals in this province," he said in his address at a PML-N workers convention in Matiari. Taking a jibe at the PPP-led Sindh government, he accused Zardari of the province's destruction.

"Zardari has destroyed this province; it breaks my heart to witness the oppressed farmers in Sindh," said Shahbaz. He claimed that he would provide electricity to every village in the province if given a chance to serve the people of Sindh. "This land belongs to Shah Latif Bhitai and the Sufis, not PTI or PPP," he said. "Sindh is my province first, Punjab comes later.”

The PML-N president promised to the rally’s participants that he would turn around Sindh's fortune to make it the country's most prosperous province. "But promise me first to sever ties with Zardari and hold him accountable," he asked a large crowd. "I will make Sindh prosperous even if the task consumes my life," Shahbaz said and added that he would visit Sindh again and again after witnessed the love he had received. He said the people of Sindh had given sacrifices for the motherland. After Late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, development was witnessed in the tenure of Benazir Bhutto, but Sindh was devastated during the Zardari era, he added.

He said Zardari plundered the national resources but made no hospitals or any educational institutions for the people of Sindh. “Time has come to take revenge of all such cruelties meted out to the Sindhis,” Shahbaz added.

“When all the federating units become prosperous then Pakistan will also be developed. If Sindh is not developed then Pakistan will also not be developed,” he said. The PML-N president also congratulated the newly elected PML-N Sindh President Shah Muhammad Shah and other office-bearers.

“I have come here to deliver a message of Nawaz Sharif. I have come to say this thing to the millions of Sindhis living from Halla to the Punjab border that election is nearer and if you will give an opportunity to the PML-N through your votes then Sindh will be developed like Punjab and Karachi will be transformed as the city of Lahore,” he promised.

“Now it is up to the people of Sindh; either they will get rid of Zardari or will they hold his accountability,” he noted. Earlier in the day, the chief minister, taking a direct jibe at the PTI chairman, said the nation would not be deceived by Imran Khan’s lies.

Addressing a ceremony at District Headquarters Hospital Chakwal, Shahbaz highlighted the government’s investment in the improvement of the country’s health sector. “How many new hospitals did Imran Khan build in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa?” the chief minister questioned, adding that the PTI chief was “lying day and night” and that the people would not be deceived anymore.

“All Imran Khan has done is staging sit-ins and lockdowns,” Shahbaz said, adding that it was because of the PTI chief that the multibillion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor was delayed. The PML-N president said the Punjab government had provided CT scan machines in hospitals. “Modern equipment imported from England is being installed in hospitals across the province,” he added.

Stressing the need of unity, he also urged the people to work collectively for prosperity of the country. The chief minister inaugurated emergency block, CT scan machine and pathology lab and inspected different sections of the hospital. On the occasion, he also announced to immediately abolish the tests’ fee in hospitals’ outdoor pathology labs across the province.