Crackdown ordered on criminals in Shujaat’s city

LAHORE — The new Punjab cabinet in its maiden meeting here yesterday decided to start a crackdown in Gujrat, the city of former chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, alleging that it has become a haven for proclaimed offenders.
Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan told reporters after the meeting that to bring the law and order situation under control the cabinet had decided to arrest proclaimed offenders across the province. And since the POs were clustered in Gujrat, the city would be the focus of the operation, he said.
The minister said that honest police officials would be encouraged and favourites of the past rulers would be shown the door. Already a number of senior police officials have been transferred and replaced by those the present government thinks are competent and honest. These new officials have taken to task such subordinates who are allegedly involved in corrupt practices.
The cabinet also decided to launch a special audit of the local government institutions. Alleging that irregularities had been committed over the past eight years, Rana Sanaullah Khan said, the records of all institutions had been seized and sealed.
He did not say how long would the process take to complete. However, he made it clear that all development activities would continue uninterrupted. The special audit of the local government institutions means that many corrupt people would be taken to task.
The law minister said the government was setting up a new institution for transparent and impartial accountability of the corrupt. Ostensibly, this means that the National Accountability Bureau set up by President Pervez Musharraf after overthrowing the PML-N government in 1999 would be disbanded. Both the PPP and the PML-N leaders say that the NAB was used as a tool by the previous rulers to victimise their opponents.
The NAB had constituted a number of cases against PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari that are being withdrawn one by one under the national Reconciliation Ordinance.
The Punjab cabinet also devoted a good deal of time on discussing the causes for flour shortage and rising prices of the commodity all over the province. While the district governments have already been directed to stop inter-district movement of wheat and wheat flour, the cabinet has asked the relevant authorities to ensure that the commodity was not smuggled.
Taking cognizant of the hardships being caused by the power load-shedding, the cabinet also decided to set up new dams. The law minister said funds would be allocated for dams in the next budget to be presented in June. Although he did not identify the projects the government would undertake, Rana Sanaullah Khan said details would come to light when the budget was presented.