LAHORE – Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Tuesday said that those who looted the national wealth and then transferred the same to Swiss banks were responsible for abject poverty and unemployment in the country, factors which push many to commit suicide.
He came down hard on President Zardari who he said had embarked on a visit to Paris and London at a time when millions of people had become homeless and were struggling for life because of the worst-ever floods in the countryÂ’s history.
The chief minister was addressing a ceremony organised to mark the 133rd birth anniversary of Dr Mohammad Allama Iqbal under the joint auspices of the Nazria Pakistan Trust and Tehrik-i-Pakistan Workers Trust at Alhamra Art Centre.
AJK Prime Minister Sardar Attiq Ahmed Khan, Jamaat-i-IslamiÂ’s former amir Qazi Hussain Ahmed, former foreign minister Sartaj Aziz, CPNE President Khushnood Ali Khan, Professor Dr Perveen Shaukat Ali, Dr Rafiq Ahmed, Waleed Iqbal (the poet-philosopherÂ’s grandson) and Sahibzada Sultan Ahmed Ali were among the speakers.
NPT Chairman Majid Nizami and Col Jamshed Tareen were present, but they did not address, probably to allow more time to other speakers.
The hall was packed to capacity and the participants raised slogans during the speeches of some speakers, at times annoying them.
Mian Shahbaz SharifÂ’s speech was mainly a response to CPNE President Khushnood Ali KhanÂ’s address during which he had pointed out a case of suicide in the provincial metropolis because of non-availability of food, and skyrocketing sugar prices, holding the chief minister responsible for all problems of the people, as should be the case in an Islamic state.
The chief minister admitted that people were facing a number of problems, but at the same time made it clear that he was doing his best to mitigate their sufferings. He said no one should forget that corrupt practices by some people on the top had created a situation that the common man was not getting the kind of facilities he was entitled to.
Without naming former federal minister Habibullah Warraich, now under arrest, the chief minister said he had committed an irregularity of billions of rupees.
He recalled that he was mercilessly criticised by ‘musketeers’ whenever he tried to help out the flood victims, some of whom had been left with nowhere to go after the floods swept away whatever kind of houses they had.
He held the federal government responsible for the increase in the sugar prices, and said had the sweetener been imported in May, as advised by him through half a dozen letters to the prime minister, the price would not have gone beyond Rs 57 a kg.
He said he was the one who had opposed the governmentÂ’s plan to impose duty on the imported sugar, as such a step would have blighted the lives of common man. He said since he himself owned a sugar mill, aversion to import duty was against his personal business interest. However, he preferred to save the poor.
Corruption, the chief minister said, was responsible for most of the problems.
He said he was willing to reject power a thousand times, if the situation was to go on unchanged.
The chief minister recalled that he had restored the facility of free dialysis in government hospitals and set up a Rs 6 billion Punjab Education Endowment Fund to help the poor students continue their higher studies.
He said the enemies were trying to create confusion and chaos in the country, a conspiracy that could be frustrated through national unity.