Corrupt opposition leaders will be brought to book, despite all their efforts to evade accountability by different means: PM Imran Khan
FAISALABAD, Feb 09 (SABAH): Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that Naya Pakistan National Health Card program is the major step towards transforming Pakistan as a welfare state on the pattern of Riasat-e-Madina. PM Imran Khan also announced that the corrupt opposition leaders will be brought to book, despite all their efforts to evade accountability by different means.
He was addressing at the launching ceremony of Naya Pakistan National Health Card Program for Faisalabad Division held at University of Agriculture, Faisalabad on Wednesday.
PM Imran Khan assailed the two major opposition parties — the PML-N and the PPP — saying their leaders desperately wanted him out of power to avoid jails for their alleged corruption cases. “They are scared of Imran Khan that their corruption will be exposed. They are taking adjournments and a judge is extending dates for case hearings. But one day, the cases have to be heard and these corrupt people will have to go behind the bars,” PM Imran Khan said.
The prime minister said making corruption acceptable was a quicker way to weaken a country than bombing it. He also accused former president Asif Ali Zardari of “bribing people to buy their loyalties”, saying “this is all happening through stolen money.”
In an apparent reference to former premier Nawaz Sharif, Imran Khan said a convict had left Pakistan citing a serious heart ailment and “now he is climbing staircases and visiting factories in London.”
He said he was astonished to note some lawyers in the country were calling for giving the convict “another chance to let him plunder national wealth one more time”. Imran Khan said the entire opposition was fearful of him and afraid of being caught in corruption cases.
He reiterated that Pakistan’s real battle was for the enforcement of the rule of law. “Once we succeed in establishing the rule of law, you will see the difference, and the change has already begun in this regard.”
He said other countries were more prosperous because of the strict enforcement of the rule of law there.
“The world number one tennis player Novak Djokovic was forced to leave Australia for not following the rule of getting a Covid-19 vaccine,” he said, adding “this is how countries are made stronger.”
The prime minister said the Punjab government was often “unfairly criticised” for not being able to deliver. “I challenge everyone to compare the performance of PTI’s three and a half years of governance in Punjab with those of the former government and a neutral umpire be allowed on TV to analyse it for the general public,” he suggested.
Prime Minister Imran Khan said that a huge amount of four hundred billion rupees is being spent on this revolutionary project of the health sector in Punjab only.
He said keeping in view the economic condition of the country; it was not an easy task to launch such a revolutionary project for the provision of quality health treatment free of cost to the common man.
Imran Khan said that the private sector will set up hospitals in small cities and villages under the Health Card project for the provision of medical treatment to the masses at their door steps.
He said that the government is fully aware about its responsibilities to facilitate the women population and in this regard, more measures will be taken for their protection and granting them more rights.
The Prime Minister said that supremacy of law is the basis for progress of any state as in all developed countries rule of law is superior to personalities.
Earlier, in his address, Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Ahmed Khan 1Buzdar said that after launching of this program in the four districts of Faisalabad, overall seventy three percent of total population of Punjab will be able to get benefit from the program.
In his address, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, Farrukh Habib said that under this program, three point two million families of Faisalabad Division will get free of cost medical treatment.
Prime Minister Imran Khan along with Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar also distributed Naya Pakistan Qaumi Sehat Card among people belonging to four districts of Faisalabad, Chiniot, Toba Tek Singh and Jhang on the occasion.