MULTAN, Jan 25: A Punjab Assembly member belonging to opposition PPP, Dr Javed Ahmed Siddiqi, has accused the provincial government and bureaucracy of being unfair against the people of Seraiki belt in resource allocation.
Speaking at a press conference here on Sunday, he said he wanted to highlight the woes of the Seraiki people by means of the media because his voice raised for the rights of Seraiki belt had always been snubbed at the floor of the house. PPP leader Khwaja Rizwan Alam was also present in the news conference.
Mr Siddiqi accused the 'Punjabi' leadership and bureaucracy for depriving the people of former civil divisions of Multan, Bahawalpur and Dera Ghazi Khan of their basic and just rights.
On the education front, he said the Punjab government was establishing seven new universities and none of them was being set up in the south. He said two of the new universities were being set up in Lahore while one each at Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Sargodha and Rawalpindi.
He said the provincial government had allocated Rs860 million funds for the health sector during the current fiscal year, but for the three big hospitals of south Punjab a total grant of only Rs43 million was earmarked.
Dr Siddiqi said the provincial grant for the Nishter Hospital this year was Rs7 million only while the Services Hospital, Lahore, was being provided a Rs180 million grant for the same period, although the former hospital was of 1,100 bed and the latter of only 400.
Similarly, Rs6582 million funds had been allocated for Rawalpindi and Rs3062 million for Faisalabad for water supply schemes while not a single penny was given to Multan under this head. Funds of Rs781 million were earmarked to establish a 'Tannery zone' in Sialkot while in case of Multan only Rs1 million was allocated.
He said the provincial government was spending huge resources of Rs200 billion to carry out development work in the areas of Murree, Kohuta, Kotli and Sattiya to establish a new summer resort namely 'New Murree' while no funds were allocated for the hill resort of Fort Munro located in south Punjab.
The MPA said the provincial government had this year allocated Rs260 million for the construction of new roads and repair of the existing ones for the CM's hometown Gujrat district while only Rs90 million were earmarked for the upkeep of 1,200 kms long roads in the Seraiki belt.
He said the government had allocated Rs60 million for the cotton crop, but that would be spent in the non-Seraiki and non-core cotton areas of Pakpattan, Sahiwal and Toba Tek Singh.
The Pakistan Baitul Maal, he said, had allocated Rs50 million funds to be distributed among the poor and the destitute of south Punjab while Rs160 million funds were earmarked only for the Faisalabad district.
He said the Seraiki belt people would have to launch a struggle to get accepted all their rights including a separate province. He urged all the segments of society including traders, lawyers, doctors, labourers, farmers, politicians, intellectuals, teachers and students to unite irrespective of their political affiliations to raise voice for their rights.
