LAHORE – Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Political Communication Dr Shahbaz Gill Wednesday termed the bidding process of the Metrobus as dubious alleging that it was not transparent and it caused huge financial loss to the national ex-chequer.
Addressing a Press conference alongside PTI Central Punjab President Ijaz Chaudhry at the Governor’s House here, he said Metrobus pro-ject was awarded by Shehbaz Sharif govern-ment to a chosen single foreign bidder at 3.80 dollars per kilometre in 2012 while no other lo-cal or foreign company was invited to bid.
He added that the PTI government had award-ed the same project in 1.86 dollars per kilome-tre in 2020 and saved 1.94 dollars per kilometre for the country. “The award of project without fair competition was a dishonest practice with waste of public tax money by paying a high price”, he said, adding that these were the reasons that :” We called Metrobus ‘Jangla Bus’.” He said the PTI was not against Metrobus but it had opposed the process under which Shehbaz Sharif launched Metrobus in Lahore, adding, that Shehbaz Sharif awarded the contract to a foreign company of his choice to run 45 buses fleet under dubious circumstances.
Gill said he had been summoned by the court on a petition for questioning the dubious bid-ding of Metrobus, adding that he would appear before the court unlike JUI Chief Fazalur Rehman who refused to appear before the court.
He said Metrobus belonged to people as it had been bought with the public tax money and it was owned by rulers or politicians, adding that the dubious deal of the Metrobus had proved Prime Minister Imran Khan’s standpoint that the past rulers were corrupt and insincere to the country.
Dr Gill said Shehbaz Sharif influenced the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) Punjab to get his son-in-law Ali Imran declared innocent in corruption charges, adding, that the ACE was not allowed to work freely during Shehbaz Sha-rif’s 10 years rule as the chief minister Punjab.
“The ACE Punjab recovered mere three billion rupees between 2008-18 under Shehbaz Sharif while the same institution recovered 206 bln rupees during 27 months rule under PTI’s CM Usman Buzdar”, he added.
On honesty of purpose, he said the PTI gov-ernment had put the national interest first in all matters and believed in non-interference in af-fairs of national institutions, adding that NAB during the PTI government’s two-and-a-half years had recovered 399 billion rupees while it could only recover 104 bln rupees during the past 10 years.
Dr Shehbaz Gill said that the opposition parties, under the banner of the PDM, purused ene-my’s agenda of compromising national inter-ests and weakening the national economy, add-ing that the PTI government had put the na-tional economy on the right track.
To a question, he said the government was providing maximum relief to the public, adding that the masses had to face the challenge of dearness due to the corrupt rulers of the past who looted the country remorselessly.
To another question, Shehbaz Gill said the past rulers caused loss of billions of rupees to the national exchequer through expensive deals.
Speaking on the occasion, PTI Central Punjab President Ijaz Chaudhry said the masses had re-jected the PDM’s narrative, adding that the op-position parties were taking out rallies to save their co
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