Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar chaired the 31st meeting of the provincial cabinet at a local hotel here on Thursday.
The meeting decided to develop Sambli (North) Reserve Forest as Salt Range National Park with an area of 13700 acres and also approved to issue a notification in this regard. Cutting of trees and hunting would be banned and the land would not be utilized for any other purpose in this park. The CM also directed to constitute the management committee to oversee the park affairs.
The cabinet approved the appointment of Maj. (R) Azam Suleman as the provincial ombudsman and decided to constitute a committee under the chair of Senior Minister Abdul Aleem Khan to formulate interim policy 2020-21. This committee will submit its policy recommendations for releasing wheat to the flour mills. Meanwhile, approval of amendments in The Cooperative Societies Act, 1925 and The Punjab Undesirable Cooperative Societies Dissolution Act, 1993 was granted as well.
CM Usman Buzdar appreciated the performance of Senior Minister Abdul Aleem Khan as well as the food department for procuring record wheat reserves during the current season as bumper wheat stocks have been purchased for the first time after a gap of ten years. Now, the Punjab government has ample wheat reserves and full attention will be paid to providing relief to the common man while formulating wheat release policy, he added. Usman Buzdar maintained the incumbent government is creating ease for the indigent stratum and welfare of the impecunious families will be fully taken care of while formulating policy about the release of wheat to the flour mills. He also directed the ministers to proactively attend the budget session.
Provincial Ministers, Advisors, Special Assistants, Chief Secretary and administrative secretaries attended the meeting.
Provincial Ministers and MPAs called on Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar at his chamber set up in a local hotel here on Thursday and apprised him about their constituency related problems.
While issuing directions to solve their problems, the CM maintained that full attention has been paid to the development of backward areas. I solve the problems of public representatives by considering them as my own and my doors are opened to all of you, he assured. I am always available for public service, he said. We deliver more but project it less, he maintained.
The CM continued that the government has fully focused on the development of every area and asked the parliamentarians to work hard for the solution of public problems. He maintained that Pakistan and the rest of the world have entered into a new phase due to the global coronavirus pandemic but it is regrettable that Pakistani opposition is still living in the past and indifferent to the hazards of coronavirus. The opposition leaders are following the practice of ‘criticism for the sake of criticism’ but the people have fully recognized their dual faces, he added.
The CM reminded that those who are making hue and cry badly ignored the health sector in their tenures and could not develop even a single hospital where they could be treated today. The PTI government has given full attention to the better of the health sector and the increase made in the health budget, during the tenure of the PTI government, has no resemblance in the past, he asserted. The point-scoring by opposition parties over the issue of coronavirus is condemnable as it is not the time to do politics but requires national unity. The PTI leadership will continue to stand with the people in the larger public interest, the CM concluded. Those who called on the CM included Provincial Ministers Muhammad Mohsin Leghari, Muhammad Ajmal Cheema, Shaukat Ali Laleka, MPAs Niaz Hussain Khan, Mian Alamdar Abbas Qureshi, Nawabzada Mansoor Ahmed Khan, Faisal Hayat, Shakeel Shahid, Muhammad Latif Nazar, Makhdoom Syed Iftikhar Gillani, Firdous Rahana, Sajida Begum, Sania Kamran, Shameem Aftab, Sajida Yusaf, Abida Bibi, Aon Dogar and others. Chief Whip in Punjab Assembly Syed Abbas Ali Shah and secretary good governance committee Col (R) Ijaz Hussain Minhas were also present.
Chairperson Punjab Daanish Schools & Centres of Excellence Authority (PDS&CEA) Sumaira Ahmed, MPA called on Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar at his office and presented the annual report to him.
The CM expressed satisfaction over achieving hundred per cent targets and directed to make functional Daanish School in Vehari at the earliest. Positive reforms will be introduced in the Daanish school system and it will be made public-friendly, he added. The CM directed to make Daanish schools economically self-reliant and regretted the past rulers used Daanish schools project for personal projection. Centres of excellence will be established in the schools to fulfil the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan, the CM added.
Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar has expressed a deep sense of sorrow over the death of three children due to the falling of roof of a house in Basirpur area in Depalpur. He extended sympathies to the bereaved heirs and directed the administration to provide the best healthcare facilities to the injured. The CM has also sought a report from the administration.
