LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif doesn’t know any Qadri.

“I don’t know which Qadri you are talking about as there are tens of thousands of Qadris in the country,” the chief minister told a questioner while dispatching first consignment of relief goods from the Punjab government for internally displaced persons of North Waziristan.

He declined to talk further on the issue.

The CM briefed the media that Chief Minister’s Relief Fund has been set up with a sum of Rs500 million for the Pakhtoon brothers and sisters displaced in the war against terrorism.

The Punjab cabinet and assembly members, he said, would donate their one month’s salary to the fund.

On behalf of the provincial government, he said, relief items worth Rs100 million were being sent to the IDPs.

The first consignment of 50 trucks carrying relief articles including rice, flour, pulses and other commodities is being sent immediately, while more relief goods, if required, will also be provided.

He made an appeal to philanthropists and well-to-do segments of society to extend maximum help to their affected brethren and sisters and donate generously towards the relief fund.

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2014