DERA GHAZI KHAN: PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif says time is not ripe yet for a no-confidence motion against the Punjab government while the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) will be consulted for it at the right moment.

He was addressing a press conference at the house of PML-N Punjab General Secretary Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari at Choti Zaireen on Monday.

PML-N Punjab President Rana Sanaullah and party spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb were also present.

Responding to a query about the accord between the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) and the government, he said they (the PTI government) had extended full support to the TLP while Shah Mahmood Qureshi had met with them (TLP leaders) and the whole nation was aware of it.

“We had never politicised the issue in the past but they often took no time in declaring anyone a traitor,” he said without taking any names. Replying to the question about any expectation of inclusion of the PPP in the PDM, he said the central leadership of the movement was the authority to take the decision.

Shehbaz Sharif said that under the leadership of Mian Nawaz Sharif since 2008, the party had provided relief to the people of south Punjab, ranging from construction of roads to canal lining, establishment of Danish schools, specially for rural areas, provision of 20 mobile hospitals and establishment of Tayyip Erdogan Hospital in Muzaffargarh.

The PML-N president further maintained that his party government had initiated the project to provide safe and clean drinking water from the south Punjab but after tendering of the project, a fraud of Rs70bn was detected and the tender was cancelled.

The former chief minister said that if he got another to serve the people, he would serve the south Punjab wholeheartedly.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2021