Senior Advisor to Chief Minister Punjab, Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Khan Khosa has said that first time in the history of Pakistan, the present government has initiated projects of Rs 135 billion for Southern Punjab in the Annual Development Programme. In a statement here on Sunday Sardar Khosa contradicted PML (Q) leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi's allegation that Shahbaz Sharif government had ignored development needs of Southern Punjab.
He said if Pervaiz Elahi had read newspapers regularly, he would have been aware of the fact that development package of Rs five billion announced by Punjab Chief Minister, Shahbaz Sharif for Southern Punjab is in addition to the funds and projects of Annual Development Programme. "It seems that due to the fear of bad news about PML-Q, the party leadership has given up reading the newspapers," he taunted.
Khosa said the former Chief Minister Elahi has mentioned allocation of Rs 117 billion during his tenure but practically the projects of even Rs 17 crore were not implemented for Southern Punjab in his regime. He said the people of Southern Punjab are asking where these Rs 117 billion were spent. It would be better if Elahi had narrated the details of those so-called development projects on which Rs 117 billion were spent.
Khosa said had a little amount out of these funds been spent in Southern Punjab, Elahi would not have been defeated from Yazman.