LAHORE: The leader of opposition in the Punjab Assembly has issued another ‘white paper’ on the exorbitant spending by the chief minister on his daily ‘useless’ tours of flood-affected areas.

Mian Mahmoodur Rashid, who is also a member of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s core committee, said daily more than Rs5 million was being spent on the fuel of the helicopter Shahbaz Sharif was using for touring flood-ravaged area.

Talking to reporters at his secretariat here on Wednesday, he demanded diverting the same money to the flood relief fund. He also sought an end to the advertisement campaign urging people to donate for the CM’s relief fund and said this amount too should be given to the affected people.

He believed that the Rs40 billion fund allocated for the Rawalpindi metro bus project should also be re-allocated for coping with the misery.

He warned the government not to cut health and education sector developments funds as were being reported by some quarters because the two sectors were already facing fund scarcity.

He claimed that the Punjab finance department was preparing a summary to cut developmental funds so as to divert extra money towards the tours of the chief minister.

In a recent letter to the chief secretary, one of the DCOs wrote that relief work got delayed because of VVIPs tours of the flood-affected areas, Mr Rashid claimed.

He said these visits, instead of providing relief, increased the agony and caused unrest among the flood-battered people.

He promised releasing details of these tours in the third white paper.

Reacting to the Punjab law minister’s statement that the judicial commission report on the Model Town incident was incomplete, he said and added that the main ‘flaw’ in the statement was that the report clearly stated the chief minister was responsible for the murder of 14 innocent people.

He alleged that the report was being amended to save the actual murderers.

ZAEEM: Member Punjab Assembly and spokesman for the provincial government Syed Zaeem Hussain Qadri has termed the ‘flood white paper’ issued by the opposition a bunch of lies.

In a press release issued here on Wednesday, Mr Qadri said the PTI, instead of spending Rs30 million on its daily ‘musical show’, should at least donate 10pc of the amount to the flood victims.

Commenting on the allegations leveled by PTI leaders, he said the party was playing politics in this hour of trial. He added the people of Punjab would never forgive the PTI for this attitude.

Mr Qadri said the entire world acknowledged leadership qualities of Punjab chief minister who was sharing the grief of distressed flood-victims.

He said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government could not spend 70pc of the development budget which was a clear proof of bad governance.

Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2014