LAHORE: Special Assistant to Chief Minister (SACM) on Information Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan has predicted that PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif will win the infighting going on in the Sharif family over the party supremo Nawaz Sharif’s “corrupt legacy”.

A “political kite flying” contest was going on between “a shrewd uncle and his niece” in Lahore for “corrupt legacy” of Nawaz Sharif, the SACM said, adding the dispute within the Sharif family was coming to an end, and Maryam Safdar might be confined to her vast Jati Umra empire, while her uncle Shehbaz Sharif would come out victorious in this family feud.

She was talking to the media at the PDMA office here on Tuesday.

Lauding the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), she said it had played a leading role during natural calamities to provide prompt relief to the affected people.

She said during earthquakes, floods, the coronavirus pandemic and other natural calamities, the PDMA had always been serving the nation.

Punjab Disaster Management Minister Mian Khalid Mahmood was also present.

Ms Awan said the PDMA also worked hard to thwart locust attacks, besides helping in transfer of brick kilns to zigzag technology in Punjab.

The SACM said the PTI was committed to strengthening the public sector institutions and its hard work during the last three years had helped in the empowerment of the state institutions, including the PDMA.

It was satisfying that digitisation had helped overcome corruption and brought improvement in service delivery at the grassroots level, she said.

The SACM said the Punjab government was committed to implementing the apex court order on local governments restoration in letter and spirit and a summary in this regard had been sent to the chief minister. Besides, the Punjab government had filed a review petition with the plea for an immediate hearing of the case, she added.

She said that earlier, 274 union councils used to elect the lord mayor of Lahore, but now five million voters would elect the mayor and the new local government act would devolve power to the grassroots level.

She said 24,000 village councils had been restricted to 6,000 councils, while 136 tehsil councils would be established through the new act.

Earlier, there was only Lahore Metropolitan Corporation, but now 11 metropolitan corporations would be set up, she said, adding that similarly, the village panchayat system would encourage alternate dispute resolution mechanisms.

Meanwhile, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Political Communication Dr Shahbaz Gill says negative politics has been the focus of PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz, be it Balochistan or Kashmir issue.

Those who remained silent on Kulbhushan Jadhav were responsible for terrorism in Balochistan while Prime Minister Imran Khan had embraced the people of Balochistan, exposing the Indian terrorism to the world, he said in a statement on Tuesday.

Mr Gill chided Maryam, saying, “the Calibri queen has only learned to do politics on sensitive national security issues. Every lie you told against national institutions has been caught”.

He claimed that the government, armed forces and the people were on the same page regarding foreign policy.

The SAPM said Prime Minister Imran Khan had decided to put an end to official protocol to the state functionaries at the government expenses.

In a tweet, he said the issue would be discussed in the next federal cabinet meeting and unnecessary expenses on state protocol for the governors, ministers and bureaucrats would end.

“The money thus saved would be diverted to the masses. The status quo would not be allowed in the country. This is Pakistan of Imran Khan,” he tweeted in Urdu.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2021