LAHORE: Chief Minister Punjab Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Monday urged local bodies representatives to utilize all their best energies for resolving problems of their districts, cities and villages through their hard work to change destiny of the nation and bring revolution of prosperity on the doorstep of the masses.
He said there would be a system of reward and punishment in new local bodies system and performance audit would be conducted along with financial audit.
"Those displaying good performance will be encouraged while those showing poor performance will be held answerable," he added.
He expressed these views while addressing Local Bodies Leadership Convention 2017 at a local hotel.
Lord Mayor Lahore, Mayors, Deputy Mayors, Chairmen, Vice-Chairmen and district councils of the whole province participated in the convention.
The Chief Minister said commendatory certificates and additional funds would be given to local bodies' representatives displaying outstanding performance.
He said local governments showing prominent performance in public service would be encouraged and awarded more funds on the basis of their performance.
He said local bodies representatives should play their role in timely, quality and transparent completion of development projects and their consultation would also be included in these projects.
Shehbaz Sharif said he had given clear instructions to district administration and police to extend all out cooperation to local bodies representatives regarding development projects and action would be taken against them in case of any complaint in this regard.
He said the young and experienced local bodies leadership was a beautiful amalgamation and this was the message of Prime Minister for them to help the government for serving the people. He said the resources and the powers would be given to them for development projects. He said the funds of local bodies had been increased from Rs. 17 billion to Rs. 43 billion.
Shehbaz Sharif said they had decided to empower local bodies representatives and had made local bodies strong financially and administratively and overall Rs 53 billion had been given to local bodies. "Negotiations will be held for more power and resources," he added.
He said a committee comprising 8 to 10 elected local bodies representatives and government officials was being constituted which would take more decisions in this regard by holding meetings chaired by him.
He said system of self-accountability was also necessary along with powers and resources as they could not move forward without accountability.
He siad powers were given to local bodies during Musharraf era and their audit was also vital every year, however, that government did not fulfill its legal responsibilities and audit of these bodies was not conducted even for one year. Â Â Â He said if any one tried to conduct audit of these local bodies, then Musharraf taunted the officers by calling them in Governor House and said local bodies were his electoral college. As it was the desire of the dictator to run the country throughout his life through these institutions.
Development funds for wrong policies were used in Attock, he added. He said corruption and nepotism were promoted during dictatorial period and inefficient persons recruited in these institutions. He said no doubt jobless persons should be employed but the posts should not be given to the people liked by them through misuse of development funds. He said lakhs of persons were recruited politically in PIA, WAPDA and other institutions during the period of Peoples Party whose cases were still in the courts.
He said elimination of unemployment was foremost responsibility of the government and for this purpose planning should be made and investment and economic activities increased. He said, "When we took action for conducting audit against the corruption of local bodies of dictatorial era then the persons committing corruption started protest at President House with the then president."
He said that the people who looted the resources of the poor nation were enemy to the masses and they should be held accountable at all costs. He said merit was only way to progress and the Punjab government had adopted the policy of transparency and merit in the province.
He said that all recruitment in education, health, police and other institutions were being made on only merit. He said that lakhs of teachers in schools and thousands of soldiers in police had been recruited on merit.
He said that those leveling baseless allegations of receiving commissions in the projects should first peep into their conscience. He said that these people should first clean the waste of Karachi where heaps of garbage were lying even in the areas of elite. They could not hoodwink the people, he added.
Shehbaz Sharif said the PML-N succeeded in 2013 due to policies of public service, honesty and hard work. If victory was achieved through distribution of jobs on political grounds then People Party would have been succeeded in 2013 elections, he added.
The Chief Minister said that people had elected local bodies representatives for five years and they should fully benefit from the opportunity of selfless service to the masses through this period. He said that they had to work hard for the success of this new system as he could not alone go to every nook and corner of the province from Kot Sabzal to Rahim Yar Khan. He said that they had to become a vanguard of the government and support it for bringing a revolution of prosperity in Punjab.
Referring to development projects of the Punjab government, Shehbaz Sharif said, first time in the history of the country Rs. 90 billion had been spent on the construction and rehabilitation of rural roads and the living standard of rural people had been changed through this project.
He said that revolutionary steps had also been taken in education sector where thousands of additional classrooms were being constructed at a cost of billions of rupees in the schools resulting in the availability of better educational facilities to the children. Moreover, a programme had been evolved for converting 20000 schools on solar in far flung areas of the province, he said and added that this project would be completed at a cost of Rs 12 billion by the end of current year.
Similarly, he said, scholarships of Rs. 11 billion had so far been given to one lakh 75 thousand girl and boy students through Punjab Educational Endowment Fund, Rs 150 billion were spent on metro bus projects for providing affordable, standard and safe traveling facilities to the people and lakhs of people were benefiting from metro bus service daily in Multan, Rawalpindi and Lahore.
The Chief Minister said that Prime Minister Health Insurance Scheme had also been launched initially in four districts of south Punjab which would be extended to 36 districts of the province and poor people would get free treatment facilities through this project of Rs. 12 billion. Â Â He said that 40 district and tehsil headquarters hospitals were also being upgraded while the number of beds in Recep Tayyip Erdogan Hospital Muzzaffargarh was also being increased to 500 beds.
Shehbaz Sharif said Rs. 30 billion were allocated for Saaf Pani Programme but some dishonest persons also tried to usurp these funds but he stopped them and saved Rs 90 billion of the nation from going to waste.
He said this proramme was being launched in 37 tehsils of south Punjab and work would be started on this project within next two months. Later, he said, its scope would be expanded to all the districts of the province.
He said work was also continuing day and night on power projects under the leadership of Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and expressed the hope that load-shedding continuing for the last 20 years in the country would be eliminated in the beginning of 2018.
He said 3600 megawatt gas power plant projects were going to complete in a record period of 27 months and these would start generating 800 megawatt each within next three months while would produce electricity through their full capacity in January.
He said on the other hand, Neelam Jhelum Power Plant had still not been completed for the last 18 years. He said that the promise made by Nawaz Sharif to remove darkness of electricity was now going to complete.
He said that completion of development projects speedily and transparently was unprecedented in 70 years history of the country. He said that under the leadership of Prime Minister, power projects were going to complete transparently before the stipulated period and Rs. 112 billion of the poor nation had been saved in these gas based projects.
He said that local bodies representatives had to serve the people and resolve their problems on their door step by utilizing all out their capabilities and the Punjab government would provide complete support to them.
Federal Minister for Planning and Development, Ahsan Iqbal while speaking on the occasion said the Punjab government had taken exemplary steps for the development of education and health sectors. Â He said that establishment of district health and education authorities was a welcome step and would help forward development vision.
He said that newly elected local bodies representatives had to play their role for materializing the dream of Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif of making Pakistan an Asian Tiger.
PML-N central leader Hamza Shehbaz Sharif said local bodies system was going to become an unprecedented institution under the leadership of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. He said that this institution should become a source of progress and prosperity of Pakistan.
He said the PML-N had made local bodies institutions financially and administratively autonomous and now they had to play their role for the construction and development of the province.
He said power projects were near completion and with the completion of these projects, Pakistan would become an Islamic welfare state in the real sense.
Provincial Ministers Rana Sanaullah, Raja Ashfaq Sarwar and Manshaullah Butt also spoke on the occasion while Secretary Local Bodies and Secretary Finance gave briefing regarding local bodies system.
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