LAHORE, June 16: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif made a rare appearance in the house on Thursday only to defend his government’s projects.

Taking the floor on a point of order, he spoke, occasionally interrupted by the opposition, for half an hour to respond to the objections on Daanish schools and Ashiana Housing Scheme, raised by opposition leader Raja Riaz in his debate on budget on Monday. Mr Riaz had dubbed Daanish schools a discriminatory project.

Mr Sharif said it is a first ever attempt in the country to materialise the dreams of the Quaid-i-Azam. He said the affluent who had accumulated wealth through lawful and unlawful means and plundered the national wealth could afford to pay up to Rs2 million fees of private schools which were beyond the reach of ordinary citizens.

Daanish schools, he said, were meant for the children of those who earned less than Rs6,000 per month. Inviting Mr Riaz to accompany him to a Daanish school, the chief minister said one could see that the children earlier unable to speak before officers and traders were now speaking English fluently. “We’ve transformed (the fate of the poor children) within six months.

Had I resources, I would have established thousands of Daanish schools.”

About the criticism on irregularities in a Rs2 billion subsidy to farmers through Green Tractors Scheme, Mr Sharif said he was ready to act if any intentional irregularity in the balloting of tractors was found.

About opposition’s clamour for resources for state-run schools, he said had the previous rulers had not looted Rs72 billion from the Punjab Bank, the facilities would have been provided to all the schools.

He said corruption and Qabza mafia had flourished in the Musharraf era and development projects became a source of plunder.

He said that Lahore-Kasur Road project was evolved in 2006 at an estimated cost of Rs5 billion but when he visited it in 2008, the site was in ruins owing to large scale corruption. But, he claimed, the present government transformed this graveyard of adevelopment project into a monument to progress. He asked the speaker to form a committee to ascertain facts about the project. He said that the contractor of Lahore-Kasur Road project had fled to Dubai with the funds while Musharraf and therulers of the province of that time remained totally unperturbed.

He also requested the speaker to form another four or five members committee to look into the Rs75 billion scam of the Punjab Bank. The body should submit its report in one month and in the light of it the culprits should be punished.

The chief minister left the house without hearing the opposition leader, who demanded that house committees also be formed to probe into Sasti Roti, Food Stamp Scheme and other projects.

PML-Q’s Chaudhry Zaheer said why the Shahbaz government could not initiate cases against the contractors and officers for their alleged corruption in projects. He said if the contractors had fled to Dubai, as alleged by the chief minister, then the officers who released funds to them without confirming quality of the work were still present in the country and the government should take them to task.