Govt can’t hide behind virus: Hamza Shahbaz

LAHORE: Holding Prime Minister Imran Khan responsible for bringing the country to a chaotic situation, Opposition leader in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shahbaz Thursday said the government couldn't hide behind Corona anymore.

Speaking on the floor of Punjab Assembly while opening the debate on Budget 2020-21, Hamza Shahbaz said that NAB and economy of the country couldn't move ahead together. He said that the accountability process should be without any discrimination but under PTI, it was victimisation in the name of accountability.

The PA session started with a delay of over two hours with Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi in chair.

Hamza Shahbaz opened the budget debate while slamming the PTI government for its miserable failure in providing relief to the people. He said that Pakistan was confronted with serious challenges but the government was constantly misleading the nation.

Voicing concern over deaths by corona, he said common people, doctors, paramedics, policemen and MPs had fallen victim to the Virus; the government paid a deaf ear to the warning of medical associations which were demanding lockdown since the beginning. He said that 6,000 people were being affected by corona on daily basis and all the warning issued by doctors was proving true but the government was issuing false information to the nation.

The Opposition leader stated that Rs9,000 to Rs11,000 were being charged as corona test which was beyond the reach of the poor. He said how could a poor man, who had to look after his family, afford such rates. He said the chief minister was monitoring the corona situation through helicopter and with this state of affairs only Dua could be offered for the improvement of situation.

He said the government had destroyed the country's economy and it couldn't protect itself under the corona shell and said the economy of the government was in doldrums under present government even before corona.

Drawing the comparison of Shahbaz Sharif government in handling the crisis, Hamza said the PML-N government had allocated Rs30 billion, experts were invited from Sri Lanka, all the stakeholders were taken into consultation and Dengue was controlled. On the other hand, he said under the present government, a large population had so far been affected by corona.

He said the PML-N government allocated 36 percent share for Southern Punjab, LG polls were held to address public issues. Now the situation was so pathetic that people had to run from pillar-to-post to even receive a birth certificate, said Hamza. He said the nation had been fed up with listening to the claims of 50,000 houses and asked as to when the nation would see Peshawar BRT project in complete form.

Slamming the PTI leadership for not honouring its pre-poll promises to the nation, Hamza said while speaking from the container, they had promised 10 million jobs but under their government, unemployment on huge scale had occurred. He said the government had done a serious joke with the agriculture sector while allocating a sum of Rs7.60 billion for it. He said the amount of loan what PML-N government sought in 10 years had been sought by the sitting government in one and a half year.

He said that NAB was doing selective justice which was obvious from the fact that a medicines scam came to surface but no action was taken against the minister. He demanded the government let the foreign funding case open instead of hiding behind the stay order. The development budget of the province had been reduced by 17 percent and project like Orange Train was yet to be completed despite the passage of one and a half year, he added.

Hamza said sugar scandal had come to surface and asked what had been the government’s action on it. He said under PML-N rule the price of this commodity was Rs52 per kg. Since day one, he said, the government had been doing blame game against Opposition and asked as to when the NAB would hold inquiry into the Peshawar Metro Bus Project. He asked who would decide about the Helicopter case.

He said despite the passage of one year, NAB hadn't made any reference against him. Drawing the attention of Speaker Ch Pervaiz Elahi, Hamza alleged the NAB was doing political engineering.

After Hamza’s speech, Law Minister Raja Basharat on a point of order stated that the Treasury members made no disturbance during the speech of the Opposition leader whereas Opposition did hooliganism during the budget speech of Finance Minister.

He said the Opposition MPs had sought apology from the Speaker over their behaviour that day but it would have been better if Hamza Shahbaz had also tendered apology for the behaviour of his side.

Mian Aslam Iqbal, Punjab Minister for Industries, while responding to the speech of Opposition leader stated that entire nation knew who was responsible for the situation of country's economy. He said the Opposition leader should tell the nation that who owns the sugar mills. He said that seven out of 40 sugar mills were owned by Sharif family.

He said it was PML-N leadership which minted money through Sasti Roti project. He said the Opposition leader had talked about the train fire during his speech but didn't tell anything about the LDA fire in which record was burnt and neither did he tell anything about the Model Town tragedy in which many people were gunned down.

He said after setting up three room hospitals, PML-N was claiming the credit to have set up major hospitals. Aslam said it was PTI that recruited the doctors and nurses. He said in the PML-N era, three patients were seen on a single bed of a hospital. He said neither the PML-N government completed the Punjab Assembly building nor Jinnah Hospital. He added that it was their style to commit corruption and raise hue and cry.

The minister stated that PTI took all measures on merit instead of making IG Police the personal servant.

During the speech of Aslam Iqbal, the PML-N legislator Azma Bokhari tried to interrupt him but the Speaker ruled that she must avoid doing it or leave the House. Azma staged a walkout in protest.