Shahbaz warns of protest if PMs order not enforced

Gas load-shedding in Punjab is adversely affecting the industrial sector: Shahbaz Sharif.APP photo

LAHORE: Regretting that the decision on gas supply to Punjab taken by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani in a meeting with him still awaits implementation, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif says the inaction will be protested at all forums.

He said it was unanimously agreed upon in the meeting that gas would be provided to Punjab five days a week but unfortunately this decision could not be materialised.

Talking to the media after visiting the under-construction state-of-the-art forensic laboratory here on Sunday, he said gas load-shedding in Punjab was adversely affecting the industrial sector and hundreds of thousands of people were being rendered jobless because of it.

Immediate implementation of the decision taken with regard to gas load-shedding was essential for functioning of industrial units and saving the workers from unemployment, he said, adding if the decision was not implemented there would be no option for the PML-N but to protest against the delay at every level.

Describing the murder of Governor Salmaan Taseer as a tragic incident, the chief minister said his government had written to the federal government the same day for conducting a judicial inquiry into the incident and the federal government would hopefully contact Islamabad High Court for formation of a commission for this purpose.

He told a questioner that the family of Salmaan Taseer would be provided complete security.

He said that he himself went to Polyclinic hospital in Islamabad immediately after the killing and expressed his condolences to the PPP leadership present there.

Shahbaz said the Muslim League-N chief Nawaz Sharif had given a national agenda with a positive approach for mitigating the sufferings and! solving the problems of the common man.

He said there could be no better agenda than eliminating corruption, strengthening democratic system, national solidarity and resolving public problems.

The chief minister said Mian Nawaz Sharif did not want any public office and had presented the agenda in the national interest and with complete sincerity.

He said it was unfortunate that the elements who got their loans written off on political basis still owned palatial houses, luxurious cars and factories and failure to recover this money from them was a negation of the agenda of elimination of poverty and unemployment.