LAHORE: A number of provincial ministers and MPAs held separate meetings with Chief Minister Buzdar at his office here on Friday and reposed “full confidence” in his leadership.

They congratulated Prime Minister Imran Khan and Mr Buzdar over the bill for the creation of south Punjab province to be tabled in the National Assembly.

Those who met the chief minister included Asif Nakai, Akhtar Malik, Rai Taimoor Bhatti, Taimoor Lali, Waris Aziz, Malik Wasif Mazhar Raan, Saleem Akhtar and others.

While assuring the parliamentarians of resolving the problems related to their constituencies, Buzdar emphasised that the “propaganda by the anti-development elements” could not cheat the masses.

He said the country needed stability instead of anarchy, regretting the opposition parties were involved in negative politics. He said the public meeting of March 27 would prove a public referendum against the opposition.

Mr Buzdar said the opposition intended to destabilise the country through the politics of anarchy and maintained that its attempts would be frustrated. He said the March 27 meeting would prove a turning point in the history of the country.

He said tabling of the south Punjab province bill would be a solid step towards the fulfillment of another promise by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf.

HAMMAD: Federal energy minister Hammad Azhar has urged the Lahorites to come out in droves to participate in the historical March 27 public gathering in Islamabad to eliminate the traditional “corrupt politics”.

“We are fighting a war for the sake of Pakistan and the traditional corrupt politics will take its last breath on March 27, when millions of people will turn up at the PTI’s public gathering at Parade Ground in Islamabad on March 27,” Mr Azhar told the media at the PTI Lahore office on Friday.

The minister stressed that the Lahorites should join the PTI rally to show that the masses were against the politics of corruption and horse-trading.

“The March 27 public gathering will outnumber the PTI’s Nov 30, 2011, public gathering at Minar-i-Pakistan,” he claimed. “If people did not come out in droves, the country may yet again fall under the siege of corrupt mafia,” he said.

He said it would be very difficult for PTI MNAs to attempt floor-crossing, when millions of people come out to condemn the politics of corruption and bribe. “It is legally and morally unfair that an MNA elected on ‘bat’ election symbol votes for another party,” he asserted.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Defence Minister Parvaiz Khattak will visit the Chaudhrys of Gujrat and deliver prime minister’s message to them.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2022