LAHORE: Chief Minister Usman Buzdar laid the foundation stone of the Saggian Road-Sharaqpur Road rehabilitation project on Friday.

The project will be completed at a cost of Rs4.32 billion.

The chief minister said the Punjab government would continue moving forward under Prime Minister Imran Khan and fulfill the responsibility of serving the people.

Addressing a ceremony to mark the occasion, he also announced construction of a flyover in Shahdara this year. He announced upgrading Government Associate College for Boys in Sharaqpur as a postgraduate college and announced naming it after Mian Sher Rabbani. He further announced the launch of an elevated expressway project and said the expressway from Gulberg to Motorway would be constructed at a cost of Rs60 billion to ease commuters’ daily movement.

Mr Buzdar also criticised the PTI government’s opponents, saying they are playing negative politics to stop the biggest development programme of Punjab in the history of the country.

“We neither believe nor trust negative politics but follow the politics that serve and provide justice to masses best,” he added.

Mr Buzdar regretted that the previous government left behind a plethora of incomplete projects and dishonoured cheques worth Rs56 billion. He stated that more development works were being done now than in the previous governments with the largest development budget given by the PTI government. He said billions of rupees were being spent on development projects in 36 districts under the district development package. He claimed that the past government spent less on Lahore and more on some selected areas, while now the PTI government was ensuring composite development. He said justice was being done to every city and region as providing facilities to the masses was his mission.

The chief minister said the journey of development and prosperity had started in every district and he was visiting every district to review the pace of work. Now, he said, one could see development work everywhere by ensuring good governance.

Punjab industries minister Mian Aslam Iqbal, MPA Mian Jalil Ahmad Sharaqpuri and others also spoke.

Meanwhile, PML-N Punjab secretary information Azma Bukhari said PM Imran Khan and Mr Buzdar were making false statements and added that the whole of Punjab including Lahore was in shambles.

She said it was Lahore’s bad luck that a remote control Usman Buzdar was installed as chief minister of Punjab. She said the whole of Lahore had become a dumping ground of solid waste and there was no one to remove the waste.

She said former chief minister Shehbaz Sharif had converted Lahore into “Paris” by giving the best public transport including metro bus and orange line train and provided clean drinking water to masses.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2022