RAWALPINDI, Nov 5: Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Saturday said that there was a dire need to break the begging bowl and avoid taking advice from abroad.

“I will hang the looters in the squares as I cannot give sweets into the mouth of looters, robbers and swindlers,” he stated this while addressing a ceremony here at Rawalpindi Arts Council Auditorium to distribute 92 yellow cabs among the successful applicants belonging to Rawalpindi district.

The function was attended by Senator Pervaiz Rasheed, Senator Najma Hameed, MNAs Hanif Abbasi, Shahid Khakan Abbasi, MPAs Ch Sarfraz Afzal, Raja Hanif Advocate, Malik Ghulam Raza, Malik Iftikhar, PML-N local leader Sardar Naseem, workers and PML-N supporters and senior officials of police and local administration.

In response to the slogans of “Go Zardari Go” by the PML-N supporters Shahbaz said that now the slogan should not be remained as slogan rather it would be given real shape to secure Pakistan from looters. “As a basic step the government needs to get rid of foreign aid to break the shackles of foreign domination and intervention in the internal affairs of Pakistan” he said.

Shahbaz Sharif stressed the need of austerity measures by the government officials and public representatives and said that his administration had saved a lot of money as he and his other colleagues were spending their own money on official tours and visits.Spending the money saved form official tours, Punjab government sent a large number of students from all provinces to foreign countries for higher education, the CM added.

He said that his administration`s efforts were satisfactory but further efforts were needed. Punjab government had forced the private hospitals and laboratories not to overcharge the dengue suspects and the high court rejected pleas against these steps as some heavy weights tried to create hurdles, he stated.

The chief minister said that the provincial government had so far distributed 20,000 vehicles in the province and started Rs1 billion worth of schemes to provide soft loans to the educated people to run their business generating employment opportunities for the people.

He said that the soft loan worth Rs50, 000 per person would be provided to 50,000 youngsters. He said that the loan would be provided to the people in a transparent manner.

He said that the government would use all available resources to provide better facilities to the people. He said that the rational behind the yellow cab scheme was to provide maximum benefit to the poor.

The Chief Minister said that the government was taking number of steps to eliminate dengue virus from the province. He said that in Lahore more than 300 people had died due to the deadly virus.

He said that if the work to control the dengue had started in previous government, deaths on large scale would not have occurred in the province. He said that pervious government of the dictator was not interested in providing safe and secure environment to the people.

He said that the provincial government reduced the fee of blood count test for dengue to Rs90.He said that Dr Mubashir Hassan, former finance minister of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto went to Lahore High Court to increase the fee of test as his laboratory was charging more fee from the patients and these decisions of the government stopped them but the LHC refused to allow private laboratories to fleece the money from poor.

Mr Sharif said that the provincial government had taken a number of steps to provide education to the people at every nook and corner of the province and scholarships had been provided to 30,000 students.

He said that 43 computer laboratories had been established in government schools in eight divisions of the province.

A female applicant, Rabia Kosar, also got the key of a yellow cab. To a question by Chief Minister, she said that she had learnt driving and she would drive the taxi to earn money for her family.

The CM said that the provincial government would encourage women to work and play their role in development of the country.