‘PA session to be called soon to rectify anomalies in LG Bill’

FAISALABAD: A session of the Punjab Assembly will be convened very soon to rectify the anomalies in the draft of Local Government Bill so that the institution could start working at the grassroots level to solve people’s problems, said Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar.

Addressing a function at the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) here on Tuesday, he said that the root cause of people’s problems was non-functional LG institutions. He said that during the tenure of the previous government, the elected councillors were not allowed to take oath for one year and even after the oath-taking ceremony, they remained deprived of funds. He said that it was not fair to claim that abrogation of LG law had created problems for the people. He said that under the new system the people would get all services at the village council level.

The governor said that entire India had become Kashmir after the anti-Muslim law where protests had crippled the Indian government in many states. He claimed that Pakistan would become a prosperous country if we succeeded to revive our economy.

Regarding current account deficit, he said that it was 19-20 billion dollars, but the government had successfully controlled it. He said that most of the people were ignorant of the impacts of the current account deficit, which had grave consequences on our economy. During the last four months, the current account deficit had decreased from $6 billion to $1 billion. He termed it a victory of the people, particularly of the business community, as they were not only earning precious foreign exchange for the country, but also providing jobs to millions of workers. In Britain, there were only two organisations, one was District Council and the other was like FBR, but in Pakistan 20-25 government departments were sucking the blood of the business community and it was very strange that all of these departments were controlled by the government, he added. He paid tributes to the business community for working for the country in the most difficult situation and said that it was his duty to give due priority to their genuine problems.

The governor said that no political party could win without the active support of the business community. Quoting an example, he said that when the business community of Britain supported the Labour Party, it bagged the victory, but it failed when it ignored the business community.

Speaking on the occasion, FCCI president Rana Sikandar Azam said that provision of clean drinking water and up-gradation of airport was very important for the future development of the city. He demanded linking M-4 with Lahore-Karachi Motorway by constructing a new interchange at Zail Gujjran. He said that the Faisalabad Airport should also be linked with M-4, which was just 4km from the airport.

Meanwhile, addressing the 24th convocation of the University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Governor Ch Muhammad Sarwar said that modern education with special attention on technological development was vital to meet different challenges in social and economic sectors. Punjab Livestock Minister Hasnain Bahadur, Punjab Minister for Baitul Maal Ajmal Cheema, GC Women University Faisalabad Vice Chancellor Dr Robina Farooq, MPs Faizullah, Nawab Sher Waseer, Latif Nazar, Shakeel Shahid. Mian Shakeel Kastro, Shahid Mian and other attended the event.