Sharifs can’t claim credit for nuclear tests: Fayyaz-ul-Hassan Chohan

LAHORE:Punjab Information Minister Fayyaz-ul-Hassan Chohan termed the Sharif family's taking credit for the May 28, 1998 nuclear tests tantamount to following figments of their own imagination and said that had Pakistan's atomic bomb been made at Ittefaq Foundry, the nation would have given the credit to Sharif Family.

Fayyaz-ul-Hassan said that in the 1980s, when the whole nation was cultivating the entire atomic programme by paying heavy price on socio-economic front, Sharif family used to pay Rs200 to Rs500 in taxes. Nawaz Sharif as prime minister of Pakistan was busy persuading the civil and military establishment against the nuclear test and for financial transactions with the world powers, he added.

This has been acknowledged by Nawaz Sharif's then Foreign Minister Gohar Ayub, and creator of atomic programme Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan in their writings and interviews.

The information minister said that the PML-N leadership should be ashamed of taking credit for the nuclear test. The credit for making Pakistan a nuclear power goes to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, General Zia-ul-Haq, Ishaq Khan and Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan and the entire Pakistani nation salutes these personalities for their efforts to make the country a nuclear power.

Meanwhile, Chohan has categorically ruled out any change in the office of Chief Minister Punjab and stated that Sardar Usman Buzdar would continue to serve as the CM for the rest of term.

Talking to The News, Fayyaz Chohan said that media cell of PML-N was always busy in propaganda against the PTI government but it had to bear the fact that Sardar Usman Buzdar was and would continue to serve as the chief minister of the province.

To a question over the reports that CM Punjab Usman Buzdar was being gradually relinquished of his duties, he said this was totally false. When asked why Senior Minister Abdul Aleem Khan chaired the cabinet meeting, Fayyaz Chohan said while the CM wasn’t in the city, he assigned the Senior Minister to conduct the meeting over corona.