Bahawalpur, South Punjab to be separate provinces: Shahbaz
30 January, 2013
LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif has said that Bahawalpur and south Punjab will be made separate provinces. Addressing a ceremony to distribute free solar lamps among brilliant students of government schools and colleges at the Islamia University Bahawalpur on Tuesday, Shahbaz said that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government would made Bahawalpur the capital of Bahawalpur province and Multan the capital of South Punjab Province. He said that the newly proposed Bahawalpur Janoobi Punjab (BJP) province was neither acceptable to the PML-N nor the people of Bahawalpur and south Punjab were agree to it. The chief minister said that when President Asif Ali Zardari was enjoying in Paris, south Punjab was inundated, while he (Shahbaz) visited every village to ensure rehabilitation and provide relief to the flood affectees. He said that all mega scandals, including the rental power projects, had surfaced during the era of President Asif Ali Zardari. He said that corruption remained rampant and Asif and his gang had no limit of greed. He said that the incompetent government of the Pakistan People's Party had given nothing to the people, except loadshedding, corruption and lawlessness, during the last five year. He said: "Darkness, which President Asif has spread during his last five years, will be transformed into light by me. Asif has given darkness to agriculture and industrial sectors, schools, colleges and hospitals in the country and destroyed them through loot and plunder." He said that though few months were left in the general elections, but with the initiation of the Khadim-e-Punjab Ujala Programme, the Punjab government had brought light to Bahawalpur. He said that his brethren in Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa should know that Ujala Programme in Punjab was not a political bribery but a fruit of hard work of brilliant students, who were getting solar lamps purely on merit. He said that he had initiated the distribution of free solar lamps from Bahawalpur among students getting more than 60 per cent marks in class IX and XI. He said that the Ujala Programme was a revolutionary step of the Punjab government, which would enable students to continue their studies during loadshedding. He said the solar lamps would provide light up to 15 to 20 years. He said that more than 15,000 solar lamps were being distributed among students in Bahawalpur division. He said that solar lamps had been imported from China, which had provided more than 10,000 solar lamps worth Rs 120 million free of cost to the Punjab government. Earlier, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif inaugurated the Ujala Programme by pressing the button of a solar lamp. The chief minister visited various stalls set up by students of the University Arts College. Provincial Minister Malik Muhammad Iqbal Channar, Special Assistant Zaeem Hussain Qadri and parliamentarians Baleeghur Rehman, Riaz Pirzada, Begum Perveen Masood Bhatti, Kazim Ali Pirzada, Makhdoom Ahmad Alam Anwar, Safdar Gul, Ali Hassan Gilani, Khalid Jajja and Samiullah Chaudhry were also present. End.
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