January 19, 2008	Saturday	Muharram 09, 1429

LAHORE, Jan 18: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) says former Punjab chief minister Pervaiz Elahi’s statement that the Shaukat Aziz government was responsible for the power and wheat crisis vindicates its stance on the crisis.

A statement quoting PML-N Senior Vice President Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, Secretary General Iqbal Zafar Jhagra and party spokesman Siddiqul Farooque said on Friday Q-League Chief Chaudhry Shujaat Husain and his cousin, Pervaiz Elahi, had got elected Mr Aziz from an Attock constituency in a “rigged” by-poll and showered praises on him day and night when he was in power.

Now they were trying in vain to dissociate themselves from the Aziz government, which, according to them, had played havoc with the national exchequer and bled the country under President Musharraf’s umbrella.

They said Mr Elahi lacked moral courage to admit releasing 500 million kg of wheat from the provincial godowns thus creating the flour crisis.

They demanded that Aziz should be tried in a court of law.

They also challenged the PML leader’s claim that the crisis was a result of the burning of 900,000 tons wheat laden in trucks, trailers and goods trains in Sindh during riots erupted after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

They said only 10,000 sacks of wheat laden on trucks and trailers in Sindh were burnt while the remaining stock, belonging to the private sector, was looted.