May get uplift grants: Imrans tsunami a boon for Q MPAs
LAHORE, Dec 28: Tehrik-i-Insafs tsunami has proved a blessing for the PML-Q provincial legislators as Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has suddenly turned soft to them lifting the curb on development funds for their constituencies.
The opposition in the Punjab Assembly, mainly comprising PPP and PML-Q, has been complaining for the last several months that the chief minister is not releasing development funds for the projects they had initiated (in their constituencies).
The chief minister has directed his principal secretary Dr Tauqir Shah to contact the PML-Q MPAs and ask them to submit proposals for development schemes in their areas so that the required funds can be released for them, an Punjab government official told Dawn on Wednesday. This offer is only for the Q and not for PPP MPAs, he explained.
Sardar Mohsin Leghari, a PML-Q legislator from D G Khan, confirmed to Dawn that the principal secretary to the chief minister had asked him to submit a proposal for development schemes in his constituency to the district coordination officer (DCO) concerned. The DCO concerned has also telephoned me and inquired about this, Mr Leghari said, adding that he needed funds for provision of potable water to the people of his constituency and repair of schools and road network damaged during flood. Since the provincial government is ready to release development funds Mr Leghari is not interested in the motive behind the move.
The PML-Q has 39 MPAs in the house after its 47 members formed a forward bloc known as Unification Group.
This offer is especially aimed at those PML-Q MPAs who, as the Nawaz Sharifs PML-N thinks, may defect to the PTI, hoping that like their colleagues in the Unification Group they too will ultimately turn to it (PML-N), he said. Mr Leghari is a cousin of MNA Awais Leghari and Jamal Leghari who have recently joined the PTI.
Q parliamentary leader Chaudhry Zaheeruddin expressed his ignorance about the chief ministers new move. What to talk about the development funds for my constituency, the provincial government is not even providing me a car to which I am entitled being the chairman of Punjab Assemblys public accounts committee.
PPP deputy parliamentary leader Shaukat Basra has asked the chief minister to also consider the PPP MPAs for provision of development funds.
The PPP legislators believe the chief minister has diverted their grants to the turncoats (PML-Q dissidents) in order to reward them for changing their loyalties, he said, and urged the chief minister not to punish the people of PPP members
constituencies by sitting on their funds.
In my constituency (Bahawalpur) sewerage and gymnasium projects have come to a halt after the Punjab government refused to release the remaining amount, he said.
Basra said when the PML-N removed the PPP from the Punjab government early this year the chief minister had immediately directed the DCOs to ensure that no grants could be further released for the ongoing projects initiated by the party (PPP) legislators.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had recently pledged a federal development grant of Rs70 million for 107 PPP MPAs apparently to stop defections. Despite this a PPP MPA from Attock joined the PTI while two others from Multan had formed a forward bloc.
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