Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party has urged the Punjab government led by the Sharif brothers to stop strangulating the poor people of Punjab economically and diverting public resources on wasteful projects like Rs162 billion Orange Line and other wasteful projects.
“It is shameful that Punjab government has pushed the peasantry into unending protests and compelled more than 6,000 employees of Rural Health Support Programme (RHSP) to hold dharnas in Lahore and elsewhere amid scorching heatwave by depriving them of livelihood,” Bilawal Bhutto Zardari stated while expressing solidarity with the farmers and RHSP who are up in protest in Lahore today.
One of the peasants Samiullah of Kabirwala died during a demonstration of Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI) in Lahore while 6,000 employees, mostly women of RHSP are threatened of retrenchment by Punjab government. Most protesting farmers under the umbrella of PKI came from Multan, Lodhran, Kabirwala, Bahawalpur and other cities of South Punjab.
PPP Chairman warned Punjab government to desist from repeating its history of always snatching livelihood from people whenever it came into power through deceiving people and stealing the elections. “PPP won’t allow it to grab the rights of poor farmers and the employees of PHSP and supports their legitimate struggle for achieving their rights,” he added.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari pointed out that Sharif brothers were spending a mammoth amount of Rs162 billion for Orange Line Train to serve just one lakh commuters while only meager funds of Rs59 and Rs54 billion were allocated for total Education and Health budget. He said people have rightly raised fingers that it was a tradition of the Sharif brothers to prepare multi-dozen billion rupees projects to finance their offshore companies through kickbacks, commissions and bribes at the cost of public welfare.
Supporting the genuine demands of the protesting farmers and health workers in Punjab, PPP Chairman asked Punjab government redress their grievances accept their demands without any delay else the PPP and other democratic parties would join their protests and take them to the logical end.
