New provinces: plunderers won't be allowed to dictate terms: Shahbaz

People who plundered national wealth would not be allowed to decide on crucial issues, such as the creation of new provinces, Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif declared here on Sunday. Inaugurating Mian Mir Sports Complex, he said that only genuine and honest national leadership, true to the national cause, could decide on the crucial issue of new provinces.
Shahbaz Sharif further said that the former state of Bahawalpur, which existed in historical times, should be made a province, adding that the people of Bahawalpur had been suffering this injustice for more than 100 years.
Making it clear that nobody, especially those who looted the nation's financial resources, would be allowed to rob Punjab's rights, he said that only national leadership that should decide whether there was a need for making a new province in southern Punjab.
Criticising the government for rampant corruption and its inability to control runaway inflation, the Punjab chief minister said that the case of rental power companies was only the tip of iceberg.
Referring to reports that laptop distribution among students was a ruse to buy the younger generation's votes, the Punjab chief minister said that this negativism was detestable. Sharif said he could never stoop to such lowly tactics.
Expressing optimism about his party's ascendancy in the upcoming elections, Shahbaz said that it was time for the nation to decide about the fate of the people who had looted national wealth.
Responding to a question, the Punjab chief minister said that stiff action would be taken against encroachers and land mafia, adding that no such illegality would be tolerated anywhere in the province. He made it clear that people involved in such practices, no matter what their stature, would be shown no leniency.