LAHORE: The PPP has chided the prime minister for, what it calls, giving lollipop to the nation every month instead of coming up with solid steps to ameliorate the sufferings of the poor.

“The selected prime minister gives a new lollipop to the people each month by promising a new imaginary project for creating jobs,” PPP Punjab Information Secretary Syed Hassan Murtaza said in reference to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s claim of creating jobs through forests.

“Neither the gimmicks of Imran Niazi end nor is there a limit to his false promises and claims.”

The PPP leader claimed that the person, who occupied power through rigging, had begun deceiving the nation, as he first claimed to reform the national economy through donations and providing employment opportunities to the people.

The donations were allegedly used for purchasing sewing machines and properties abroad for Mr Niazi’s sister (Aleema) and the nation was left high and dry, he said, recalling that the people had earlier been promised of an economic paradise as gas reserves were likely to be discovered through deep sea explorations.

Then, Mr Murtaza recollected, the prime minister claimed of paying all national liabilities from the Reko Diq gold mines. Now, he has claimed to plant forests and creat jobs from honey farming, he added.

General Secretary Chaudhry Manzoor said in a separate statement that the prime minister and Punjab chief minister were competing with each other in promising imaginary projects.

He said if Imran Khan had discovered Pakistan as the only country in the universe with 12 seasons then Usman Buzdar talked of planting 10,000 trees per acre to achieve the five-million-tree plantation target, whereas hardly 500 trees could be planted in an acre of land.

He further said Mr Khan was talking about improvement in the economy, while the stock exchange graph was falling by thousands daily. He lamented that the PTI government had for the first time in the history of the country secured a ‘crisis debt’ at double than normal interest rate.

Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2020