PTI slams PML-N govt for ‘double standards’

Punjab PTI has criticized the Punjab government for its double standards on corruption and poor governance. Flanked by Punjab general secretary Dr Yasmin Rashid and information secretary Andleeb Abbas, Punjab PTI president Ahsan Rasheed in a press conference on Wednesday stated that the PML-N had been criticizing the federal government but ignoring numerous cases of its own corruption and poor governance which had been highlighted by the media time and again. Sasti Roti, Laptops and Danish Schools are only some examples of high level corruption and poor governance of the Punjab government, he said. Criticizing the Punjab government, the PTI Punjab president said that no meaningful action had been taken to investigate the laptop scam, despite continued projection of the alleged embezzlement by the media. The PTI leadership quoted media reports, “A total of 110,000 laptops procured not directly from the manufacturer but through a local company.” The PTI leaders said that the Punjab government had bought outdated laptops at a rate of Rs 37,000/per laptop for a total of four billion rupees. The market price for these laptops is not more than Rs. 25,000.The cost should not have been more than Rs. 20,000 because of old technology and bulk buying. Rules and regulations were violated to accommodate the company as the NAB was not informed of the transaction. Law says all procurement in excess of Rs 500 million should be brought in NAB’s knowledge. Resultantly, the laptop scheme had cost total losses worth Rs. 1.70 billion to the provincial kitty, they said. Exorbitant increase in crime rates, unprecedented reliance on foreign and local debt to run the day-to-day affairs of the Punjab government clearly depicted that the incumbent regime in Punjab was inept and corrupt. They stated that the PML-N could not fool the people by criticizing only the federal government for corruption and poor governance. Referring to a book by Raymond W Baker, they said that massive corruption of Sharif Brothers had been exposed in the book. The author has alleged the Sharifs of corruption amounting hundreds of millions of dollars through money laundering, loan defaults and other scams, they said. “Both the federal and Punjab governments are led by corrupt and incapable people who diverge and converge on issues considering their own vested interests with complete disregard to the welfare of the people of Pakistan”, they said, adding that this was not the first time that the PML-N was in power in Punjab and the people were fully aware that the party had failed to deliver anything substantial, despite being in power for years.