LAHORE: Four federal ministers Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Asad Umer, Shafqat Mahmood and Fawad Chaudhry called on Chief Minister Usman Buzdar at his office here on Friday and sought funds for development schemes in their respective constituencies.

It is learnt that Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi wanted funds for the establishment of a mother and child healthcare hospital in Multan. However, the minister was asked to transfer land for the hospital in the Punjab government’s name for the construction of the hospital.

The P&D Chairman and secretaries of finance and local government gave briefings to the federal ministers and explained that the Punjab government was currently preparing PC-I for the Hospital Strengthening Programme. The federal ministers presented different proposals for public welfare schemes.

The ministers were also informed that the Punjab government was collecting data to ensure provision of health cards to widows across the board.

In the meeting, the chief minister assured the federal ministers that development work would also be done in the constituencies of MNAs and effective mechanism be devised for the way forward. “The MNAs are my companions like the MPAs and their due rights will be given to them,” he said.

The chief minister also said that people would be empowered through the new local bodies system.

Shah Mahmood Qureshi said organised work would be done for public welfare while Asad Umer said the Punjab and federal government would work in unison for providing facilities to the people.

Fawad Chaudhry stated that devolution of power would help solve public problems at their doorsteps and Shafqat Mahmood stressed the government would come up to the expectations of the people in accordance with the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Besides federal ministers, Chief Whip in National Assembly Malik Amir Dogar and Adviser to PM Shehzad Akbar, provincial ministers Basharat Raja, Dr Yasmin Rashid, Mian Mahmoodur Rasheed and Mian Aslam Iqbal also attended the meeting.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2020