LAHORE: A brother and son of Maulana Fazlur Rehman are part of the same parliament that he does not trust and is trying to disrupt, says Punjab Information and Culture Minister Syed Samsam Ali Bokhari.

Briefing the media after the cabinet meeting, he said Maulana Fazl was not part of the National Assembly and, therefore, trying to hamper it. “However, his efforts are bound to fail as has his Multiparty Conference (MPC) even before being held,” he said.

The opposition parties must understand that they could not blackmail the PTI government under any circumstances. The agenda of the opposition is merely to criticise for the sake of criticism and doing politics for the sake of politics – an effort bound to fail, he said.

Under the directions of Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, the Punjab government had abolished tax levied on transport buses by making an amendment to the Finance Bill and also decided to grant Rs1.5 billion relief to the general public.

He further said the silence of Shahbaz Sharif and fiery speeches by Maryam Nawaz were not part of democratic struggle but a war of succession to the throne; Maryam had been trying to strengthen her position in the party in the last two weeks.

The provincial minister further said some elements were trying to downplay the importance of the visit of the Qatar emir.

“They must understand that he was not here to write some letter but promise investment worth $3 billion. Bilateral investment would reach a healthy figure of $9 billion and the common man would get relief out of it,” he said.

He said the PTI would accept the genuine demands of the opposition but would also continue to show them the mirror.

“If the opposition has proposals for the welfare of the general masses, it should put these forward and the PTI would certainly take these into account. But, there is no room for undue relief, both politically and financially.”

“The overseas Pakistanis are fully satisfied with the policies and decisions of Prime Minister Imran Khan. The previous government had artificially held the dollar price low and the PTI government was trying to bring about equilibrium,” he said.

GUJRAT: The minister also visited Jhelum where he said the Jamaat-i-Islami’s decision of not participating in the MPC was a big blow to the opposition plan.

Speaking to the media on his visit to Karam Shah’s shrine in Jhelum, he said it’s quite possible that Shahbaz Sharif might have to seek permission from Maryam Nawaz before speaking (on any issue) in future and the opposition leader should break the silence.

Mr Bokhari, who was flanked by Pir Sarwar Hussain Chishti of Ajmer Sharif, said the interests of Maulana Fazl were different than those of the PML-N and the PPP and the MPC would be nothing except a gathering of people.

He said the government had already given a roadmap to progress and presented a balanced budget to bring about a real change in the lives of people. It would be the first time that the public money would be spent on them (the masses), he said.

He said the local government system in Punjab was a revolution as the village councils and panchayat councils represented the real change.

Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2019