PAT issues white paper on one year Punjab Government performance

Lahore: The Pakistan Awami Tehreek has issued a White Paper on the one year working of the Punjab Government saying that in Punjab monthly over 3 lakh and yearly 36 lakh street crimes are committed. The paper said that to show a decline in the numbers only 25 per cent FIRs are registered.

The paper said that in the present a sharp rise has been seen in the kidnapping of young children and 12, 245 children were kidnapped this year. Whereas on an average 11 to 12 thousand kidnapping and kidnapping for ransom cases were registered in the previous years. 22 per cent of kidnapping cases are never registered. Killings in police encounters stand at 10 per cent and crime against women has seen a 19 per cent increase, 7000 blind murders and 14,000 were killed in sectarian violence.

The White Paper said that Punjab dominates all the provinces in the crime graph. The CM who claimed to break the begging bowl has taken 850 million new loans and Punjab has a big load of 580 billion on its head. Every year the mark up increases and that badly affects the budgets for education, health and other social sectors. Even after remaining in power for seven years the Punjab Government has failed to establish a financial management system.

The White Paper was released by the Central Secretariat of PAT in Lahore. According to the fact-finding report the Model Town incident, Kot Radha Kishan incident, Wagha Border incident and police torture on blind people has bought a bad name to Pakistan and for all these incidents it was the Punjab government that was responsible and the incompetence of the government has badly been exposed. And the hitches the government has and is putting before the clean, free and fair investigation of the Model Town killing is a glaring example of its criminal involvement.

The spokesman for PAT said that all the information for the White Paper has been collected from electronic media, print media, national and international publications, regional newspapers and police officers and officers of different departments and monitoring.

The White Paper revealed that in the current year 248 police encounters took place in which 25 policemen lost their lives and extra-judicial killings of 235 under arrest criminals were noted. 6000 people were killed and 22000 attempted murder cases were registered while this figure is 22 per cent more than last year. The year has also seen an increase in attacks on government officials this includes attacks on polio teams. Last year 1438 attacks were reported while this increased to 1534 this year. Last year 5160 gang rape cases were noted while only 2269 FIRs were registered and this years the number stands at 6100 of which 2402 FIRs have been registered. 50 per cent crime against women is never registered and for legislation to control crime against women the Punjab minister Hameeda Waheeduddin had written to the Punjab CM but the effort fell on deaf ears.

The White Paper revels that the Punjab Government’s Sasti Roti programme and mechanical tandoor schemes badly affected the Punjab Food Department and since 2012 the department has come under a debt of 80 billion and has to pay mark up of 9 billion every year and to meet this the department has to increase the price of wheat flour. The people and the nation have to suffer due to the wrong decisions taken by the Punjab CM.

The paper says that the Punjab Government plans to favor its blue eyed traders and for that it has allocated 7 lakh tons of wheat for them for export while 50 per cent of the poor people are forced to buy flour at higher rates and the surplus wheat rots in government stores. The White Paper demands that instead of favoring its blue eyed traders the government should give the same wheat to the poor and IDPs at subsidized rates. In the first quarter of this year only 17 per cent allocation could be released for development plans in the education and health sectors. The Paper says that 7000 doctor’s posts and 22000 subject specialist posts are lying vacant in the health and education departments. This is the worst example of bad governance.

The paper further reveals that this year the budget of Rescue 1122 has been slashed from 1650 million to 1450 million. This cut has affected the working of the department and the workers are facing delay in receiving their salaries. The paper warned the government that the workers of 1122 plan to start a protest movement in this regard. The paper pointed out that saving lives is not a priority for the government rather it prefers making bridges and roads.

The Paper says that the prices of vegetables have soared and the prices of potatoes, onions and tomatoes have reached record levels and the government has failed miserably in checking those who are reaping massive profits from this business. The present years has also seen rice and sugarcane growers suffer as they could not even get the actual price of their goods. The paper said that those who were affected by floods had to suffer more at the hands of the government policies. The affected growers protested against the government and raised ‘go Nawaz go’, slogans. The Paper said that the Punjab Governor had revealed that out of the 700 agriculture medicines making factories 650 are illegal and are working without any approval of the concerned departments and the government has never taken any action against these illegal companies. The Paper said that the revenue allocated for the South Punjab has not been utilized and only 25 per cent of that has been released by the government. It said that South Punjab has always been neglected by the government and extremeism is on the rise in this region.

The president of Punjab PAT Basharat Jaspal, general secretary Fayyaz Warraich and media secretary Abdul Hafeez Ch said that soon PAT will expose the corruption, bad governance and mismanagement of all the different departments of the Punjab government and will inform the people how and where their money is being misused and ending up in corrupt hands.