PHOOLNAGAR (Web Desk/Dunya News) – Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz on Thursday termed the current PML-N governments in Islamabad and Punjab as the fourth term of elder Sharif – the former three-time prime minister who could never complete the tenure due to political interference – as she promised to serve the masses as a mission started by her father.
The journey to development was halted, every time Nawaz ousted from his office through a conspiracy, Maryam told a gathering in in Phoolnagar – a rural town in Kasur district – where she inaugurated a rural health centre (RHC).
“The interests of 130 million people of Punjab is supreme to me,” the chief minister remarked and said Nawaz had been insisting on working for masses’ welfare.
She asked the gathering not allow halting the process yet again and said Pakistan and Punjab would be completed changed if the current government completed the five-year term, as she described herself and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, as elder Sharif’s soldier.
PRICE CONTROL
“Your tomatoes, onions and potatoes are my responsibility” unlike a person who remained in government, said the chief minister unlike a person who remained in government – an obvious reference to the PTI founding chairman who had famously stated during his stint in government that monitoring tomato and onion prices wasn’t his responsibility as a prime minister.
Maryam said she had promised to control inflation, which was fulfilled despite being in government for just two months.
Reminding the audience it has been never easy to arrest inflation once the genie is out of the bottle, she mentioned the government move to lower the roti prices and recalled that the onion prices were hovering around Rs300 per kg, but had dipped to Rs100 per kg in a short span of time.
NO WHEAT CRISIS
“There is no wheat crisis”, Maryam said and added that she had shut the door to corruption in wheat procurement.
Although the chief minister didn’t elaborate his point, she was obviously alluding to the repeated reports of irregularities reported every year during the wheat procurement drive.
The remarks came as the government has been facing severe criticism over not launching the annual official wheat procurement after fixing the minimum support price at Rs3,900 per maund [40 kilogrammes].
The chief minister said the Punjab government was set to launch a historic Rs400 billion package in the coming four months, under which each farmer would get Rs150,000 to buy agriculture inputs like seeds and fertilizers through Kissan Card.
HEALTHCARE FOR ALL
Maryam said there were 300 RHCs and over 2,500 basic health units in Punjab. Each of these facilitates were being revamped and provided with necessary equipment so that healthcare services could be provided at the people’s doorsteps.
Listing different initiatives like mobile health units and clinics on wheels, she also said that there won’t be any shortage of doctors, nurses and other paramedical staff at any of the health centres across Punjab.