LAHORE, July 19: Opposition Leader in Punjab Assembly Raja Riaz says despite an assurance by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif development funds for the projects initiated by the Pakistan People's Party MPAs in their constituencies have not been released yet.

“The chief minister had asked me to see Sirdar Zulfiqar Khosa for resolving the issue of funds for the PPP legislators but he (Khosa) did not bother to hold a meeting with me in this regard,” Riaz said while talking to Dawn on Tuesday.

He said the PPP legislators believed that the chief minister had diverted their grants to the PML-Q dissidents (turncoats) in order to reward them for changing their loyalty.

Riaz said when the PML-N asked the PPP to quit the Punjab government the chief minister had immediately directed the district coordination officers to ensure that no grants could be further released for the ongoing projects initiated by the PPP legislators. He said now the PPP would build pressure on the chief minister to get development funds for 2011-12.

Sirdar Zulfiqar Khosa said the chief minister had not asked him to hold a meeting with Riaz for resolving the funds issue. “We have not withheld any development funds for PPP MPAs. Rather Mr. Riaz had assured us that he would talk to the prime minister regarding the release of development funds for the PML-N MNAs but he did not do so,” Mr. Khosa said.

PPP'S ADVICE TO PML-N: The PPP leaders have asked the PML-N to stop conspiring against their government after the return of the MQM.

Raja Riaz, Imtiaz Safdar Warriach, Samiullah Khan and Usman Malik said the PML-N's dream of making a grand alliance against the government had shattered after the MQM's rejoining the government. Now the PML-N should stop conspiring against the PPP and let it complete its term.

“We have buried Nawaz Sharif's negative politics with our policy of reconciliation. The Sharifs wanted to use MQM for their objective but they failed,” Raja Riaz said.

He said Nawaz Sharif talked about the politics of principles but he made an agreement with a dictator and left the country. “None of the political parties trust the Sharifs because of their politics of hypocrisy.”