Punjab govt lost Rs 7bn in IT sector: Elahi | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

Punjab govt lost Rs 7bn in IT sector: Elahi

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) senior leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi has accused the Punjab government of causing a loss of Rs 7 billion through bad governance in the Information technology sector.

Addressing a press conference at his residence, he said Nawaz Sharif has forgotten to issue a deadline to the provincial government to trace corruption, mismanagement and bad governance. Elahi said the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief should have issued a 12-point agenda to the Punjab government, which he said, had violated all democratic norms in politics and promoted turncourts, which was against the spirit of the Charter of Democracy (CoD) he had signed with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

He said the PML-N should accept the mandate of other political parties, as it had promised in the CoD and stop patronising turncourts of other parties in pursuit of the party’s lust for power.

Elahi said that the PML-N government had caused Punjab to go bankrupt, although when his party left the government, the province had Rs 250 billion in surplus. He added that in the IT sector alone, the PML-Q government had made long-term plans and investments while the incumbent government, through its bad management, had caused a loss of Rs 37 billion annually to the sector.

Elahi said bad management in the sector had not only halted investment, but has deprived poor students of thousands of scholarships and subsequent chances of good jobs. He said through schemes like the Sasti Roti scheme and ill-conceived plan of constructing IT labs, Punjab CM Shahbaz Sharif had allowed siphoning off of billions of rupees.
Source: Daily Times
Date:1/10/2011