June 29, 2006	Thursday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 2, 1427

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LAHORE, June 28: PML-N leaders at a seminar here on Wednesday criticised the government for its failure to control price hike, growing unemployment and crime rate. They said the budget would not be able to solve people’s problems.

Provincial president Zulfikar Khosa, Begum Tehmina Daultana, Rana Sanaullah, Saad Rafiq, Pervaiz Malik, Zaeem Qadri, Mian Marghoob Ahmad and Mian Mujtaba Shuja were prominent among speakers.

They praised the Supreme Court for its verdict annulling the privatisation of the Pakistan Steel Mills, and said people were now attaching great hopes with this pillar of the state.

Time had come, they said, that the judiciary should look into the possibility of allowing former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto to come back to Pakistan. Also, they said, the case against PML-N leader Javed Hashmi should be re-examined.

The speakers said the Charter of Democracy had given the people a new ray of hope. The signatories to the CoD, they said, were more interested in getting the nation their due rights seeking power for themselves.

They said the country needed a fighting army, not a ruling army.

They said the budget had nothing to do with the people’s problems. Agricultural and industrial production had gone down, although the rulers were claiming that the country had made unprecedented progress.

They were critical of the discretionary funds of the president and the Punjab chief minister. Facilities and privileges given to the governor were also unprecedented, they said.

One speaker alleged that a turncoat from southern Punjab had been given funds for his treatment.