LAHORE: Governor Chaudhry Sarwar announced on Wednesday his disassociation with the Sarwar Foundation, a non-government organisation (NGO) being run by him and his wife.

At a press conference, he said the funds collected by the Sarwar Foundation from his recent foreign visits as the governor would be transferred to the Punjab Aab-e-Pak Authority (PAPA) for installation of water filtration plants in the province.

The governor took the step following social media concerns that collections for filtration plants were being deposited with the Sarwar Foundation accounts instead of PAPA.

“I will not be part of any fund-raiser for the foundation as long as I am here in the Governor House,” he declared.

Apart from governorship, Sarwar said the prime minister had made him in-charge of religious tourism and Abe Pak Authority.

“Both these issues are very close to my heart. I am being accused of ignoring clash of interest when I go out to collect funds for clean water.”

About his foreign tour, the governor said that he went to the US for four objectives: meeting Pakistani community there, convincing it to get involved in the US politics, invest in Pakistan, meeting the Sikh community and inviting them to Pakistan and looking at supply of clean water options.

“I have huge success in all four areas because people now trust Imran Khan and his team. Inviting our Sikh brethren to birthday celebrations of Baba Guru Nanak was a special objective because I am looking at a figure of two million visitors to Pakistan in the next few years, which could benefit the country by up to $5 billion.”

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2019