MULTAN, May 22: Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi has said backward areas will be allocated more funds until they become on a par with other developed parts of the province. Speaking at the PML workers convention here on Monday, the CM said the provincial government had been giving 11 per cent more development funds to south Punjab against what should be its share on the basis of population.

He said the government would phase-wise spend resources worth Rs2.28 billions to provide clean drinking water and an effective sewerage to the people of Multan. He said the old sewerage of the city would be replaced completely under the scheme.

He said the provincial government had earmarked 127 acres for the federal government’s plan to set up a state-of-the-art university of engineering and technology in Multan with the aid of Rs15 billion. He said Gen Pervez Musharraf would soon perform the groundbreaking of the university. He said the Punjab government had also allocated 27 acres for the construction of a women university here.

He announced upgradation of Government Intermediate College for Girls, Chungi No. 14, to degree level. He said his government had allocated Rs610 million for the construction of roads, bypasses and sewer schemes in and around the city, besides a special grant of Rs200 million for the DHQ hospital.

He directed the district administration to take effective measures to check price hike and profiteering. He said workers were assets of the party and the administration should give them due regard as they were also part of the government’s development endeavours.

Commenting on the democracy charter, the CM said after leaving party workers in the lurch (by taking asylum in Saudi Arabia) Nawaz Sharif had betrayed them again by joining hands with a party against which he and his workers had struggled for 22 years.

“He used to say that PPP and Pakistan can not go together,” the CM quoted former premier Mian Nawaz Sharif to have said this time and again.

He said Nawaz Sharif was no more part of the Muslim League as he had accepted the PPP’s hegemony through the so-called charter of democracy. He claimed that thousands of PML-N workers were now turning up to join PML. Earlier, the CM visited the Children Complex Hospital and promised to provide funds for its expansion to 300 more beds.

Besides, Mr Elahi announced development grants of Rs200 million for Jalalpur Pirwala tehsil, Rs140 million for Shujabad tehsil and Rs100 million for supply of drinking water in the areas having brackish sub-soil water. He said in Multan his government had spent Rs2 billion on health and Rs500 million on education.