Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar on Friday rejected rumours that he is about to be removed from his post, adding that the main objective of these rumours is to stop development work in the province.
The chief minister was speaking exclusively to Geo News when he said rumours of his removal as chief minister are spread every once in a while. “There is no truth to rumours of my removal [as CM Punjab],” he said.
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.
Speaking about former chief minister Punjab Pervaiz Elahi, Buzdar said he had respect for the PML-Q leader and that both the leaders trusted each other.
Buzdar recounted the projects initiated by the provincial government in Lahore, rejecting criticism that the Punjab government had not brought about any progress in the city. “The entire credit for the completion of the Orange Line train project goes to the PTI,” he said, also promising that access to the province’s “flagship project”, the Sehat Insaf card will be ensured by 2021.
Criticising the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), the Punjab chief minister urged them to put their own house in order before criticising him. “The PDM [has now been forced to] hide their faces from the public,” he said.
Rumours after PM hinted at ‘big changes in Punjab’
The rumours of Buzdar’s possible removal began floating as a meeting of PTI members took place earlier this month, chaired by PM Imran Khan.
Sources claim that at the time that the prime minister had indicated “big changes” in the Punjab administration. Sources said that prior to the meeting, the prime minister had met Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar, adding however that the “changes” have nothing to do with the chief minister.
PPP and PML-N planned to remove Buzdar?
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders have confirmed that the former planned to overthrow the incumbent Punjab government-headed by Usman Buzdar, however, the latter did not agree to it.
It was confirmed during a talk-show, 11th Hour on ARY News, by Nabil Gabol of the PPP and Attaullah Tarar of the PML-N.
Nabil Gabol said that the PPP had sought PML-N’s support to overthrow the Buzdar-led government, however, they rejected the offer which led to differences between the two parties.
Attaullah Tarar, who was also part of the panel, confirmed the offer but said that how could they support the chief ministership to a party that only had 10 seats in the provincial assembly. “The PML-N has 165 seats, how, it is possible that we accept a chief minister from a party having 10 lawmakers in the house,” he said.
It is pertinent to mention here that PPP has seven lawmakers in the Punjab Assembly while PML-Q which is part of the federal and provincial governments has 10 seats.
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Nabeel Gabol, however, said that if the move was made at that time it would have weakened the PTI-led government in Punjab. “Whosoever was handed the Punjab government, at least, it would have been snatched from the PTI,” he said adding that it would have been a booster for the opposition alliance with governments in two major provinces, i.e Sindh and Punjab.