Addressing the officials at the ground-breaking ceremony of the FC College underpass, the chief minister said he had initiated a plan to reorganize the Muslim League-Q at every level. He claimed that he had already held city and town level meetings with party leadership and now planned to go to the grassroots to make it more effective.
Besides preparing for party funds for reorganization, he asked the party workers to identify the poor, who would be given subsidized flour. “The Punjab government has initiated scheme for providing relief to the poor, and now it is the duty of the party workers to help identify the deserving.”
The CM also claimed that his government had lived up to its promises. The government pledged to complete The Mall underpass in 90 days, and it succeeded. Now it promises a repeat performance for the FC College underpass. It will take not more than that much time and require Rs280 million for completion, he said.
Mr Elahi said it was not the only particular part of the city being taken care of, but the government had prepared water supply and sewerage plans also for the Walled City. Traffic plan for the Azadi Chowk, Bhatti Gate, Yateem Khana Chowk and the entire Multan Road was in the pipeline.
Similarly, the development projects for the other cities of the province had also been prepared and these were at various stages of execution, he said. He, however, said: “There is no need for development, if the benefits are not evenly distributed and reach the poor.”
The chief minister arrived 56 minutes late (if time written on the invitation is something to go by) to break the ground for new underpass. The waiting public was treated on war songs of the late Noor Jehan.
Provincial Communication and Works Minister Zaheeruddin, who also spoke on the occasion, was of the view that dynamism of the chief minister made it possible for his department to take up such mega projects. The department had already expanded and upgraded roads over 600 kilometres during the last one year. It would not lose momentum under the able leadership of the chief minister, he promised. Earlier, addressing the noisy gathering, City Nazim Mian Amer Mahmood described the occasion as the best opportunity to thank the chief minister for his efforts towards the development of the city.
“Although the previous government had built roads, it had not made the payment and borrowed money at 14 per cent interest. Had the city government been asked to make all those payment, it would not have been able to initiate any project for the next four years. It was the personal interest of the chief minister, which made all the development possible,” he claimed.
Mian Amer also revealed that the government had decided to expand the road along the canal to a three-lane wide way to smoothen the traffic for motorway.