Current Final

Tag: Punjab government

  • PM ‘worried’ about the Opposition

    PM ‘worried’ about the Opposition

    Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday, while speaking at a ceremony in Ziarat said, “I am worried, whether they [Opposition] will remain as an alliance or not.”

    Khan took a jibe at the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), which faced a setback after the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Awami National Party (ANP) left it.

    The premier said the country was “getting out of a very difficult time”, adding that the Opposition parties had been “making noise” that his government would fail ever since it came to power.

    “Our opponents have created hue and cry. Even when Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) had formed the government in 2018, our opponents said that we were bound to fail,” said Khan.

    The Opposition kept reiterating that the country’s economy would suffer, but now, when the growth rate’s statistics were made public, they rejected them, he said.

    “Our opponents want us to fail,” he said, as he stressed the government was doing everything in its power to uplift the economy.

    The premier, shedding light on how his government achieved growth in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said the PTI-led government promoted tourism, launched health cards for nearly half of the population.

    Moreover, till this year’s end, Punjab’s population will have a health card and soon enough, all of Pakistan will have this facility. “Even in Balochistan, every family will have a health card.”

    Prime Minister said his government “considers Balochistan ours” in a way that previous governments did not. Previous governments had not spent money on the province’s development, he said, adding that his government would “use all of our resources in this difficult time” to ensure progress.

    The premier said there was a gas issue in Ziarat, and a member of the provincial assembly (MPA) had told the premier that a gas line would be installed to overcome this problem.

    Installing an LPG plant is more feasible in Ziarat, he said, adding in the next fiscal year, he would try his best to get an LPG plant installed in the city.

    “Balochistan is a large province, so developing streets here is quite expensive …. Pakistan’s development will actually take place when the entire country develops,” he said.

    The premier said despite reservations from Punjab and KP that he was being “too generous with Balochistan”, it was the government’s “responsibility to make full efforts” because the province had been ignored in the past.

    “Pakistan’s development will only be in real terms when it is inclusive [and] when the whole country develops,” he reiterated.

    “I will keep coming here and checking the progress. We are giving another package for roads. We will give funds wherever there is room,” the premier concluded.

  • Punjab to vaccinate students of universities, medical institutions

    Punjab to vaccinate students of universities, medical institutions

    The Punjab government has decided to vaccinate students of medical colleges and universities, to ensure the safety of all and protection from the virus.

    The decision was taken during a meeting chaired by Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid. The government discussed a possible move to vaccinate people employed in 30 other sectors where the dangers of contracting the virus are high. 

    “Strict implementation of SOPs led to reduction in coronavirus tests. As of today, 901 cases emerged across the province. For the first time, less than a thousand cases have been reported across the province,” Dr Yasmin Rashid had said. 

    There is a total of 905,852 confirmed cases of Covid- 19 in the country, with a positivity rate of 4.8 per cent.

  • CM Buzdar to meet JKT group today

    CM Buzdar to meet JKT group today

    Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar will meet members of the Jahangir Khan Tareen (JKT) group today to hear their grievances.

    Talking to the media, Punjab MPA and JKT group member Nazir Chohan said they would meet the chief minister and tell him about his “faults”.

    “The purpose of our meeting is the betterment of the province. Punjab’s affairs are being run by the bureaucracy.” Chohan added that while the MPAs have elected Buzdar as the chief minister, he did not get them elected.

    Earlier, PTI MNA Raja Riaz had claimed that CM Buzdar is ready to address the reservations of the Tareen group.

    Riaz claimed CM House Punjab had contacted him and said that he expects to meet the chief minister soon.

    These development come after Jahangir Tareen announced that his supporters had decided to form a separate group after the Punjab government initiated vindictive actions against them. However, he clarified that this was not a forward bloc and all members of the JKT group are still part of PTI.

  • Cop among three killed, over 100 arrested as Labbaik protesters resort to violence

    Cop among three killed, over 100 arrested as Labbaik protesters resort to violence

    • Interior minister announces action against those breaking law; necessary measures to reopen roads, entry/exit points also ordered

    At least two protestors and a policeman were killed Tuesday in violent clashes between members of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) and police in Lahore early Tuesday morning, less than a day after police arrested party chief Saad Rizvi.

    According to reports, the policeman was killed in overnight clashes with the supporters of Rizvi, Lahore police chief Ghulam Mahmood Dogar said. Ten policemen were also wounded in these clashes in the Shahadra neighbourhood.

    Two members of the TLP were also reported dead in Punjab.

    As the protests spilled over into other cities on Tuesday, the police arrested more than 100 supporters of the party.

    The violence began late on Monday after police arrested Rizvi for threatening protests if the government did not expel the French ambassador, Marc Baréty, over blasphemous cartoons.

    According to Dogar, the arrest was aimed at maintaining law and order. But Rizvi’s detention quickly sparked violent protests by Islamists in cities around the country. The protesters blocked highways and roads in several cities.

    The deadly clashes come two days after Rizvi in a statement asked the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan to “honour” a commitment it made in February to his party to expel Baréty before April 20.

    However, the government has said it only committed to discussing the matter in the National Assembly.

    The reaction from Rizvi’s supporters against his arrest was so swift that police in Lahore could not clear a main highway and roads. Thousands of people were stranded in their vehicles.

    Monday’s clashes initially erupted in Lahore. Rizvi’s supporters later clashed with police in Karachi and they continued rallying on the outskirts of Islamabad, disrupting traffic and inconveniencing residents.

    INTERIOR MINISTER:

    Meanwhile, Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed has ordered action against those who take law into their own hands, besides putting in place measures needed to reopen roads as well as entry and exits points of major cities across the country.

    The Interior Ministry decided to take strict action against those creating law and order situations, and ordered to suspend cellular and internet services in affected areas.

    The decisions were taken during a high-level meeting chaired by Rasheed.

    It was attended by federal minister for religious affairs, chief commissioner, Islamabad and Punjab inspector generals (IGs) and chief secretaries concerned.

    BACKGROUND:

    Saad Rizvi emerged as the leader of the party in November after the sudden death of his father, Khadim Hussain Rizvi, due to the coronavirus. His supporters have previously held violent rallies to pressurise the government not to repeal the blasphemy laws.

    Blasphemy is punishable with a mandatory death sentence, and the very mention of blasphemy is enough to inflame violent reactions.

    The TLP wants the government to boycott French products and expel the French ambassador under an agreement signed by the government with Rizvi’s party in November.

    TLP and other religious parties have denounced French President Emmanuel Macron since October last year, saying he tried to defend blasphemous caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) as freedom of expression.

    Macron’s comments came after a young Muslim beheaded a French school teacher who had shown caricatures in class.

    The images had been republished by the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, best known for vulgar irreverence, to mark the opening of the trial over the 2015 attack against the publication for the original caricatures.

  • Two-week complete lockdown in worst-hit Lahore from today?

    Punjab health authorities and local administration have proposed a complete lockdown in the provincial capital as the COVID-19 positivity ratio stands at around 19% for the third consecutive week.

    The final decision, in this regard, will be taken by the Asad Umar-led National Command Operation Centre (NCOC).

    Lahore is the worst-hit during the third wave of the pandemic owing to the recklessness of the masses and disinterest of the government. Both had turned a blind eye towards the virus situation until the positivity ratio climbed to a whopping 23% last week.

    The situation in other parts of Punjab is not much better either.

    Punjab Health Minister Prof Dr Yasmin Rashid has said that if precautionary measures are not taken, the situation in Lahore and other cities would worsen.

    Explaining the alarming situation in the Punjab capital, she said there were no vacant ventilators at any of the city’s major hospitals, including Jinnah Hospital, Services Hospital and Gangaram Hospital.

    Besides the shortage of ventilators, oxygen beds at hospitals across Lahore have also reached their 70% capacity.

    “We don’t have any other option rather than the complete lockdown in Lahore however the final decision will be taken by the Punjab government,” the provincial health minister added.

    Meanwhile, 58 people lost their lives due to coronavirus with 4,584 new cases over the past 24 hours. The death toll has surged to 15,501 while the number of confirmed cases stands at 725,602.

    The 58 fatalities on Sunday-Monday come after over 100 deaths ever 24 hours for at least five consecutive days.

  • Punjab govt rushes to Tareen’s support amid reports of rift with PTI

    The Punjab government has said that disgruntled Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Jahangir Tareen is an important pillar of the party and had worked hard to form the government of Chief Minister (CM) Usman Buzdar.

    Speaking to Geo News, Special Assistant to Punjab CM Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan said Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan had come to power on the manifesto of the supremacy of law and a corruption-free Pakistan.

    Awan, while responding to a question on accountability, said all those PTI leaders and ministers who were accused of corruption had returned to their positions after getting themselves cleared from the charges.

    The spokesperson dismissed media reports claiming that the government is taking revengeful action against Tareen.

    Tareen is facing charges of corruption in the sugar scandal and multiple cases have been filed against him.

    Amid his ordeal, reports had claimed the sugar baron was defecting to rival Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

    While the claims have been rubbished, any truth to the same could serve a severe blow to the ruling PTI, especially in Punjab where Buzdar is in power owing to the support of a number of loyal-to-Tareen MPAs.

    The PTI leader, after appearing in court on Wednesday, had said that his loyalty to PM Imran was being tested, but that he is not parting ways with the PTI.

    While responding to a question, Awan said that Tareen would never take a step that would harm PTI and that he had played an important role in forming the Buzdar government and taking forward the policies of the PTI government.

    “Jahangir Tareen will never want to see PTI getting weak on the political front. In pursuance of PM Khan’s mission he was active as a soldier,” she added.

    Meanwhile, the Punjab government has reportedly prepared a list of the PTI members who were in contact with Jahangir Khan Tareen.

    CM Buzdar is set to hand over the list to the premier, which would be followed by a final decision on said lawmakers’ fate.

    Tareen loyalists maintain that he also played a major role in securing PM Imran the recent vote of confidence and without his support, the government is struggling owing to a thin majority in Punjab.

  • Mobile vaccination program launched for senior citizens in four cities

    The Government of Pakistan has launched a mobile vaccination service for senior citizens aged above 80 years and for differently-abled persons aged above 50. As per reports, the service is initially available in four cities of Punjab including Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad and Multan.

    Read more – Lahore: 550 doses of COVID-19 vaccine go missing from one hospital, 350 spoiled at another

    The step has been taken to speed up the process of vaccination amid a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases in the country.

    “Senior citizens who are 80 years and above and those with disabilities over 50 years of age don’t have to leave home for the vaccine as the government vaccine vans will reach them wherever they are,” said Punjab Minister for Health Dr Yasmin Rashid while talking about the initiative.

    Chief Minister Usman Buzdar urged people to get vaccinated and said “citizens can simply call the health helpline 1033 to get vaccinated at home.”

    Vaccinations for people over 60 years and above commenced on March 10, while registrations for people above 50 started last week on March 30.

    Meanwhile, 5234, people tested positive in the last 24 hours in Pakistan whereas, 83 people have lost their lives to the deadly virus. The positivity rate has jumped to 10.43 %.

  • Lahore: 550 doses of COVID-19 vaccine go missing from one hospital, 350 spoiled at another

    Lahore: 550 doses of COVID-19 vaccine go missing from one hospital, 350 spoiled at another

    Around 550 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have reportedly gone missing from Lahore’s Services Hospital, media reports have claimed citing sources at the health department.

    According to the reports, an additional 350 doses of coronavirus vaccines stored at the city’s Government Mozang Teaching Hospital have “gone to waste”, while no record could be found for the nearly 600 missing ones.

    The missing vaccines have been administered to important personalities, bureaucrats, and their friends, sources at the health department said, adding that Federal Minister for Housing Tariq Bashir Cheema of the Pakistan Muslim League – Quaid (PML-Q), along with his wife, also received the COVID-19 jab from the missing doses.

    On the other hand, the principal of the Services Hospital says that the vaccines haven’t disappeared but there has been an issue with the compilation of records.

    Provincial Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid maintains that the government is carrying out an audit of the vaccine doses and a report related to that will be submitted soon.

    Meanwhile, the medical superintendent of Mozang Teaching Hospital has been suspended after 350 coronavirus vaccine doses stored there were spoiled.

    According to a notification of the Punjab Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Department dated March 29, the MS, Dr Munir Ahmad Ghouri, was “placed under suspension, under Section 6 of PEEDA Act, 2006, on accounts of inefficiency and misconduct, with immediate effect”.

    A senior official of the provincial health department said that the medical superintendent was suspended after 350 coronavirus vaccine doses, stored in the refrigerator at his office were spoiled.

    “He stored the doses in the refrigerator in his office and then went on leave,” the official added.

  • ‘Apni dukaan pr baith k ehtijaaj kaisay karoo?’: Firdous Ashiq on not getting paid

    Special Assistant to Punjab Chief Minister (CM) on Information Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan has revealed that she is not getting paid.

    “How can I protest at my own shop?” she said when suggested to do so by host Muhammad Shoaib during a rather light-hearted interview that aired on Wednesday morning.

    Firdous and the host were seen having quite a day with jet-skiing among other water-related activities in Karachi.

    The government official was also spotted sailing a boat and taking digs at the opposition alliance, Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM).

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHu2TG4dnkA

    “It has run out of fuel like the PDM,” she could be heard as telling the host when her jet ski stopped working.

    Firdous also spoke about how Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan didn’t have any favourites, she wanted to do parasailing but the winds were too strong, and she has been quite a lot into water sports since forever.

  • Four chief secretaries, six IGs, 15 secretaries; six DG Khan, four Lahore commissioners changed under Buzdar rule

    In what appear to be efforts by Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Usman Buzdar to prove his mettle as a good administrator amid severe criticism over a number of things, it has emerged that new records were set within the past two and a half years as the provincial chief executive struggled to constitute the best team.

    Soon after the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) came to power in 2018, Buzdar was handed reins of Punjab by Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan despite reservations expressed by several allies of the premier.

    “He will prove to be the best Punjab has ever had,” PM Imran said while defending Buzdar time and again, especially amid criticism aimed at the newcomer over his lack of experience, unpopular decisions, and as the masses drew comparisons between Buzdar and his predecessor, Shehbaz Sharif.

    Two and a half years since his election, it has emerged that CM Buzdar set a new record, but it might not exactly be for what you think or could have expected…

    He became the first provincial chief executive to have made the most number changes to his team in no time, the details of which are as follows:

    FOUR CHIEF SECRETARIES:

    Jawad Rafique Malik (April 2020 – Present)

    Azam Suleman (5 Months 3 Days)

    Yousaf Naseem Khokhar (13 Months 24 Days)

    Akbar Durrani (3 Months & 19 Days)

    SIX INSPECTOR GENERALS (IGs):

    Inam Ghani (September 2020 – Present)

    Shoaib Dastagir (9 Months 10 Days)

    Arif Nawaz (7 Months 11 Days)

    Amjad Javed Saleemi (6 Months 2 Days)

    Tahir Khan (1 Month 4 Days)

    Kaleem Imam (2 Months 28 Days)

    OTHERS:

    Besides over a dozen transfers and postings among secretaries of different Punjab departments, the other prominent officials sent packing included those serving in the provincial capital and CM Buzdar’s hometown Dera Ghazi (DG) Khan.

    DG KHAN CHIEF COMMISSIONERS:

    Dr Irshad Ahmed (Incumbent)

    Tahir Khurshid

    Muddassir Riaz

    Asadullah Faiz

    Naseem Sadiq

    Sajid Zafar

    LAHORE COMMISSIONERS:

    Asif Bilal Lodhi (Second Appointment)

    Mujtaba Paracha

    Saif Anjum

    This, however, isn’t where it all ends.

    According to sources, major changes in Punjab are once again on the cards and Primary and Secondary Health Secretary Capt (r) Muhammad Usman is likely to be made Lahore commissioner soon.

    While the chief secretary and the IG could also be replaced, reports regarding Buzdar’s own dismissal have been rebutted by both Centre and the Punjab CM himself.

    Speaking to Geo News, Buzdar said rumours of his removal went rife every once in a while. “There is no truth to rumours of my removal [as CM Punjab],” he said, adding that the main objective of these rumours was to stop development work in the province.

    He said that the Punjab Assembly and “his leader” — Prime Minister Imran Khan — had complete confidence in his abilities as the province’s chief executive.

    “I am staying here and will continue to serve the people of Punjab,” he said. “We are governing Punjab transparently; not even a single corruption case has been exposed,” he added.