BAHAWALPUR: Punjab Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday reiterated his party’s commitment to restore the Bahawalpur province, besides announcing that Speedo bus service will be restored in the city soon.

He was talking to electronic media at the South Punjab Secretariat housed in Circuit House here during his first official visit to any district after assuming the charge of Punjab chief minister’s office.

The chief minister, flanked by federal minister Tariq Bashir Cheema, PML-N MNA Najeebudin Owaisi and former federal minister Baleeghur Rehman, said the PML-N during its rule had got passed a resolution in the Punjab Assembly for the restoration of Bahawalpur province.

Reiterating his party’s support for the cause, Mr Hamza announced, “We still firmly stand by this commitment,” and added that the government’s allies would also be consulted on the issue.

Nawab Sadiq hospital MS suspended for poor sanitation, faulty equipment

He said whenever the government would have the required majority in the assembly, progress would be made on the issue.

He also assured the local parliamentarians that Speedo bus service, launched by his father Shehbaz Sharif as chief minister in the city, would also be restored soon.

He regretted that despite the establishment of South Punjab Secretariat in the city, the deprivations of the region’s population had increased which, he said, exposed Imran Khan’s slogan of ‘Naya Pakistan’.

He pointed out that no new development project had been completed in the region after the construction of Bahawalpur-Hasilpur road, Bahawalpur-Khanewal highway, Quaid-e-Azam Solar Park and Sadiq Abbas Hospital during the Shehbaz-led Punjab government.

He said that under the PTI rule poor patients were begging for free medicines in the public hospitals. He pledged to restore free medicines for the cancer patients and others at the government hospitals in the province.

The chief minister said that during the last government, corruption was rampant in the public offices, but he directed the Punjab chief secretary and inspector general of police to post honest and efficient officers to provide relief to the people.

The lashed out at PTI and PML-Q leadership, for flouting courts decisions and said Imran Khan declared those heroes who violated court orders.

He alleged that Imran had summoned “goons” from London to raise objectionable and derogatory slogans inside Masjid-i-Nabvi, calling it an act of desecration.

The chief minister paid a “surprise visit” to the Nawab Sadiq Civil Hospital where he reprimanded the administration for the non-functional equipment, poor sanitary conditions and inadequate medical facilities in the hospital. Later, the medical superintendent of the hospital was suspended form service over these shortcomings.

He ordered repairs of the equipment within a month. He also ordered the commissioner and Quaid-e-Azam Medical College (QAMC) principal to constitute a medical board for the treatment of a poor girl admitted to the hospital on the request of her father.

Published in Dawn, May 2nd, 2022