April 14, 2008	Monday	Rabi-us-Sani 7, 1429

LAHORE, April 13: The newly-elected Punjab government has substantially reduced our security paraphernalia and in case of any harm to our family members, the FIR will be lodged against the Sharif brothers, says Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, the former chief minister and parliamentary leader of PML-Q.

At a press conference held here on Sunday, Mr Elahi said that he and his family members faced life threats from Al-Qaeda and other terrorist outfits in the country, and they had been warned of the threat through official letters.

The bullet-proof vehicles were arranged in response to these threats, he said and added: "The visiting dignitaries also wanted to move around in these bullet proof vehicles given the threat perception in the country. I have been paying for petrol of these vehicles from my own pocket."

He claimed the party had very good relations with the media and would be "looking positively" at the new Pemra Bill being tabled in the National Assembly. The party would have a "positive attitude" towards the bill when it came under discussion at the committee level, he added.

He said the newly-built CM’s Secretariat should not be confused with the CM’s House. "I have been living in my own house since my birth and never moved to official residence for the chief minister. The secretariat is an institution built for monitoring development work in the province. The development budget during five-year rule of the PML-Q rose from Rs20 billion to Rs150 billion. In order to oversee such a massive development work, the province needed equally elaborate paraphernalia."

Saying Nawaz Sharif built the Prime Minister’s house at the cost of Rs2 billion some 18 years ago and the Punjab House at Rs250 million where a number of foreign dignitaries would stay, he asked should one be blaming him (Nawaz Sharif) for waste of money? “These are institutional buildings and should be taken as such. If Mr Nawaz Sharif wanted to do something for education, he should donate land for the purpose from his Raiwind Estate and we would contribute (resources) for the cause.”

The former chief minister dispelled the impression that he was still acting as a provincial leader by taking more interest in Punjab affairs than those of centre. "I am a central leader of the PML-Q and would be at any place where there is an issue. If Arbab Rahim gets thrashed in Sindh, I will take it up. If Sher Afgan is mistreated in Punjab, I will be speaking on the Punjab’s affairs."

He claimed the PML-Q government created one million jobs a year during its tenure while the new rulers started with `throwing 3,500 people out of jobs’ and were politicking on non-issues to deflect people's attention from the real ones.

The PML-Q, he said, had created some benchmarks like providing free education up to metric level, free medicines in emergency wards of all hospitals and ambulance service. “Instead of following these benchmarks, and improving upon them, the new government has picked up non-issues like institutional buildings,” he added.

He said in order to inflate the cost of the buildings got constructed by the PML-Q government, even price of the land belonging to the government, was also being included in the expenditures.