There was less corruption in Nawaz govt: Shehbaz

LAHORE: PMLN President and former prime minister Shehbaz Sharif has said corruption was less when the Nawaz Sharif government was overthrown but it increased during the PTI’s tenure.

Addressing a workers convention in the Township on Tuesday, he said the report of Transparency International was the proof that corruption had increased during the PTI era. “I always walk on merit, be it the laptop scheme or recruitment for jobs, I do not work against merit. When I became chief minister for the first time, I had claimed I would make Lahore Paris and was ridiculed for this,” Shehbaz said, adding that under the leadership of Nawaz Sharif, Lahore was made a beautiful city.

During Nawaz’s era, poor patients were getting free medicines and if the PMLN forms the next government, it will continue this service. Nawaz has planned to boost IT education. “We neither have oil nor gas, the young generation is the country’s capital and they should vote on February 8 thoughtfully.”

PMLN Chief Organizer Maryam Nawaz said someone had the illusion that he would buy votes by giving money but he should forget this. Without naming Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, she said this person was fond of a debate nowadays, but the debate could have been only held if he had built a metro bus in Sindh like the one in Punjab. She said in Sindh, water still came through tankers and citizens had no option except to buy it. She announced if the PMLN came to power, it would develop Sindh also.

Maryam said Attaullah Tarar would win this seat because the people of Lahore knew who had developed Pakistan and who had filled their pockets with corruption.

Ataullah Tarar accused Bilawal of creating disorder in Lahore after disrupting peace in Karachi. He said Bilawal was traveling in the constituency in a big caravan. The PPP government in Sindh is the worst and if Bilawal is elected from Lahore, he will cause destruction. When the PMLN government was in power, there was no sign of poverty or unemployment. When the PPP government came, everything was looted.

The PMLN always did politics of service. The person who was sentenced to 10 years today is the person who waved cipher and said that his government was ousted by conspiracy. But his government had ended by his own conspiracy.

Shehbaz also addressed a workers convention in Gulshan-e-Ravi, PP-172. He said the enthusiastic gathering here despite rain was the proof that the sun of February 8 would be the sun of Nawaz Sharif. “I promise that if we succeed, we will again give laptops and educational scholarships to the youth on merit,” he announced and said if the hospitals of Punjab, including that of Rajanpur, were compared with the hospitals of other provinces, a visible difference could be found.

He announced sports complexes and swimming pools in every provincial constituency of Lahore. He said development works would be done under the leadership of Nawaz Sharif and e-libraries would be established for the youth in every park of Lahore. Food and drink arrangements would be made in these parks in the same way as there was food and drink arrangements in the Greater Iqbal Park.