LAHORE, Feb 19: Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer accused the Pakistan Muslim League-N on Thursday of not respecting the mandate of the Pakistan People’s Party and the PML-Q and said the PPP would soon instal its own government in the province.

The PML-N had only 31 per cent seats in the provincial assembly and it must not forget that it was running the government with the support of the PPP, he warned.

Addressing PPP workers at Karim Park here on Thursday, Mr Taseer said that the PML-N was enjoying power in Punjab and, at the same time, it was indulging in the politics of confrontation in the name of restoration of the judiciary.

He said Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had failed to complete his cabinet despite being in office for one year. “The PPP has only six ministers in the provincial cabinet and they too are without power,” he said.

Mr Taseer alleged that a number of task forces and ‘favourite’ bureaucrats had been running the provincial government.

Expressing concern over non-utilisation of development funds, he said: “Punjab has an annual development budget of Rs160 billion and only 20 per cent of it has so far been used. This means no development has taken place under the leadership of Mr Shahbaz Sharif.”

He accused the provincial government of wasting its energy on confrontation with the opposition and nazims.

“The PML-N has made mockery of judiciary. It is only interested in restoring deposed chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. He (Justice Iftikhar) had taken the oath under the PCO and made the LFO part of the Constitution.”

The governor said the PML-N should come out of its wishful thinking that lawyers’ long marches would derail the PPP government at the centre.

He expressed surprise over Shahbaz Sharif’s meeting with Sindh Governor Ishratul Ibad and said the PML-N had sworn not to ‘shake hands’ with the MQM.