April 15, 2008	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 8, 1429

LAHORE, April 14: Pakistan Muslim League-N president Mian Shahbaz Sharif announced on Monday that all political cases would be withdrawn and said that revolutionary steps would be taken to improve education and health sectors in Punjab.

He also hinted at introducing courts, specifically dealing with criminal cases, and launching a process of across-the-board accountability.

“The steps will be formally announced by Chief Minister Dost Mohammad Khosa after taking the vote of confidence on Friday,” he said at a press conference at the Sharif Medical Complex.

Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Khwaja Mohammad Asif and Khwaja Hassan were present on the occasion.

The PML-N president said the departments concerned had been asked to prepare a list of political cases for their immediate withdrawal. The beneficiaries, he said, would include workers of all political parties.

He said the cost of education would be reduced and standard of public schools would be brought on a par with that of private schools.

Answering a question about the “Parha Likha Punjab” project of the last government, he said he had no objections to its features but to the manner in which it had been implemented.

“Millions of rupees have been spent by the past rulers on personal projection from the Rs18 billion World Bank-funded project.”

Mr Shahbaz Sharif said the government would bear expenses of promising students with meagre financial resources.

Acknowledging the importance of justice, he said the lower judiciary would be divided into two and a cadre of judicial officers would be introduced to deal only with criminal matters for providing speedy justice to litigants and reducing the workload of civil courts.

He admitted that judicial officials were underpaid and said there should be a seven-fold increase in the salaries of judicial officers, police and teachers. However, he said, the increase should be linked to performance and under a system of check and balance.

He said that only merit and integrity would be taken into account while appointing police and administrative officers in the province and no political pressure would be accepted in this respect.

He said that a system of accountability would be introduced in the province and honest people would be inducted to launch the accountability process.

He said that a committee headed by former secretary Mehr Jeevan Khan would look into the former government’s decision of giving state land to a commercial concern at a throwaway price.

About political recruitments made by the PML-Q government, he said these would have been ignored had their number been a couple of hundreds or those recruited had been efficient people and men of integrity.

“At least 3,500 retired people were re-employed and most of them are of the level of patwaris and moharrars.”

He alleged that the past government had illegally recruited traffic wardens because these posts should have been filled through the Public Service Commission.

“These recruitments will be reviewed with a sincere mind and none of the officials will be fired without any cogent reason.”

The PML-N president said that the returning officer had rejected his nomination papers on the pressure of the then sessions judge who was later promoted to the Lahore High Court.

He alleged that so-called judges had used the Punjab governor’s plane to visit President Musharraf in Islamabad for conspiring against democracy.