MULTAN, Jan 31: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has said some elements are fomenting political confrontation in the country, but his party will not indulge in any such kind of activities and stick to the Charter of Democracy (CoD) instead to save the country from dictatorships.

At a press conference here on Saturday, the chief minister said both the PPP and the PML-N, while signing the CoD, had agreed to change the culture of confrontation in politics with the culture of courtesy and mutual respect.

He said they were promised that all deposed judges would be reinstated immediately after the removal of dictator from the Presidency, but the promise could not be fulfilled. However, he said, his party was firm on its stand on the restoration of deposed judges.

He said his party wanted establishment of rule of law in society that could only be ensured with independent, fair and transparent functioning of the judiciary for which the country needed brave and honest judges instead of PCO-judges who had validated illegal acts of a dictator by damaging the Constitution for their own benefits.

He said his party had no concern over PPP-PML-Q links but it was clear that his party would not retreat from its stand on the restoration of the deposed judges.

He said the provincial government had taken over the control of dispensaries and educational institutes that were being run by the management of banned Jamaatud Dawa on the directives of the federal government and these dispensaries and educational institutions were still functioning.

The chief minister announced that workers who had sacrificed for the party would be accommodated and jobs from BS-1 to 5 that didn’t require merit would be given to those workers.

Refusing to comment on the statements of Governor Salmaan Taseer, Sharif said he had not read these statements.

Later, during his visit to Shujabad tehsil headquarters hospital, the chief minister suspended its medical superintendent, Dr Shabir Qaisrani, and the dialysis machine operator from service over inefficiency.

He announced Rs150 million development funds each for Shujabad and Jalalpur Pirwala tehsil.

Earlier, addressing members of the Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Friday night, the chief minister said interest rate all over the world was from one to 1.5 per cent but it was up to 22 per cent in Pakistan.

He said the countries that had been importing textile products from Pakistan were now graded as main exporting countries and Bangladesh was one such example.

Similarly, he said, India increased its export volume three times, but unfortunately we could not progress an inch in export sector.

He said it was the need of the hour that mark-up should be reduced for the industry by providing more incentives to reduce the cost of production and it was the only way to help industrialists increase exports.

He said the Punjab government was ready to reduce prices of plots in Industrial Estate’s Phase-II and to provide funds for the promotion of industry. He said that the Punjab Industrial Board and the Punjab Small Industries would also play their role in this regard.

He said the Bank of Punjab might issue loans in future but currently it was encountering financial crunch in the wake of disbursing loans inappropriately.

He said the Punjab government was seriously considering providing chartered planes at low freight to exporters so that they could directly export products. He said that in this way fruits and dairy products would be exported from the province in shortest possible time.—Correspondent