From Abid Usman
LAHORE: Governor Punjab Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar has said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government should table the South Punjab province bill in the assembly despite lacking two-thirds majority.
In an interview with APP here on Sunday, he said the opposition parties would be exposed if the bill was rejected in the Parliament, adding that the opposition always made hollow slogans in the past about the creation of a separate province. “And when the PTI government took practical steps to meet a long-standing demand of the area people, political parties like the PML-N started throwing a spanner in the works by claiming that Multan and Bahawalpur should be made provinces,” he added.
About overseas Pakistanis, the governor said that unfortunately the government had not succeeded in enforcing true justice system during the first years of its rule, adding that police, courts and other departments had failed to provide justice in many cases. Mohammad Sarwar, to a query, said the country owed a great deal to the patriotic Pakistanis who, in July 2020 only, sent 2.5 billion dollars in foreign exchange.
“Problems faced by the expatriate are being solved on preferential basis today and the PTI government, under Prime Minister Imran Khan, would continue to achieve the cherished ideal in the coming years,” he asserted. Governor Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar, who has vast political experience as a member of the British Parliament and who relinquished his British citizenship in July 2013, underlined the need to engage the international community in order to defeat Indian propaganda against Pakistan on Kashmir, FATF, GSP plus status and other issues.
To a query, he said his international relations had helped him win Pakistan GSP Plus status in 2013 while his diplomatic and political acquaintances would win the case for Pakistan on the FATF forum as well and Pakistan would be cleared from the grey list. “Pakistani diaspora in the United States (US) like their compatriots in the UK, should take active part in politics as a few members in the Congress and Senate could make a case for their community and the country of their birth,” he responded. Eulogising the services of Pakistani-British politicians, he said it was his political identity in the UK which helped him win aid of up to $500 million for Pakistan which was mere $20 million when he started politics.
