Maximum seats in Senate elections: Punjab govt starts preparations

LAHORE: The PTI-led Punjab government has started preparations for getting maximum seats in the upcoming Senate elections. The provincial ministers have been assigned duties for liaison with the members of the Assembly ahead of Senate elections.

Governor Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar and Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar held a meeting here at Governor House in which strategy for Senate elections was discussed in detail. Provincial Law Minister Raja Muhammad Basharat and Special Assistant to Chief Minister Punjab Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan and others were also present.

During the meeting, political issues including opposition protest also came under discussion.

Talking on the occasion, Governor Sarwar said they will give a surprise to the opponents in the Senate elections with the help of our allies. The candidates who receive tickets from PTI leadership will succeed; the opposition will only face failure as earlier.

"No matter how hard the opposition tries, Imran Khan will be the Prime Minister till 2023 and the PTI government will complete its term," he said, adding: "We will continue our mission of development and prosperity in the country."

Chief Minister Usman Buzdar said on the occasion that the party is united and all the assembly members stand firm with party policies under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

In the Senate elections, PTI and its allies will win, the PDM will fail again and the government will succeed.

Moreover, talking to media, Federal Minister for Science and Technology Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said the PDM should contest elections as one political party to achieve some semblance of a national colour because separately they do not have the ability.

Advising the PDM parties to merge into a new political party instead of an alliance to contest the upcoming local government elections, Fawad said they [opposition parties] should pick Fazlur Rehman as their leader and Bilawal Bhutto and Maryam should join this party.

According to him, all opposition parties had become region-specific parties instead of national entities, the PPP was limited to interior Sindh, PML-N to central Punjab and the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) to four districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Referring to the PDM announcement about long march, Fawad said that Bilawal and Maryam had worn masks but despite that there was disappointment in their eyes at PDM's condition.

"There is disappointment in the PDM because they do not know what to do, as their efforts to get relief from the courts or a National Reconci­liation Ordinance-like concession had failed," he said.

To a query, he said the farmers were getting fair price of sugarcane which has gone from Rs 230 to between Rs 270 which is due to the sugar commission.

When asked about electric vehicles, he said a new policy had been brought because of which many consumers would switch to electric vehicles within a year. "We will try to make a policy on them within the next three months," he said.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021