June 17, 2006	Saturday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 20, 1427

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LAHORE, June 16: Punjab PPP Information Secretary Farzana Raja said on Friday that the regime was covertly killing the poor people by raising prices of essential commodities, denying health facilities and multiplying unemployment. Giving her reaction to the new Punjab budget, she said: “The government is doing nothing for the welfare of the common people. People are dying of hunger and diseases, but the rulers least care”.

She said: “The rulers have not raised salaries of the government employees or pensioners as per the ratio of price hike. The people are committing suicides due to the attitude of the regime”.

She said people kept standing in long queues in front of the utility stores but did not find essential commodities. “The rates announced by the

government are also not implemented”.

Farzana Raja, who also heads the central information bureau of the PPP, said: “The relatives and friends of the rulers are involved in sugar crisis”.

She said the rulers claimed of breaking the begging bowl but they were now using a fresh and unbreakable bowl to ruin the economy of the country.

Farzana noted that instead of allowing relief to the common man the rulers had increased the budget of the Chief Minister and the Governor’s House.

“The budget of the CM House has been raised to over Rs 140 million from Rs 90 millions while the allocation for the Governor’s House is now Rs 8.8

million raised from Rs 6.6 million. This is a mockery with the government employees and unemployed youth for whom the rulers have no money”.

She said over Rs 85 million have been lavishly spent on renovation of the Governor’s House.

The PPP leaders said the law and order situation of the province was alarming but the regime, instead of holding the police accountable, had

massively increased their budget to keep them dancing to their tunes.

“The increase of budget from Rs 8 million to Rs 20 million makes no sense when the police department is not delivering. The rulers have failed to bring the country out of the shadows of a so-called police state. Registration of over one million criminal cases in Punjab this year speaks

volumes about the performance of the police”.

She said on the health sector the people were dying with gastro but the government was doing nothing to provide treatment to the affected.

Farzana Raja said the people were in despair due to the growing unemployment. “Youngsters have lost faith in the system and are fleeing the country”.