N League has a history of using Punjabis as human shield in its nefarious power game: Moonis Elahi

Lahore (December 15, 2010) Moonis Elahi the senior central leader of the Pakistan Muslim League has said that the people of Punjab are currently the biggest victims of the ongoing target killings wave in the country. Referring to Monday’s statement of the Sind Home Minister and the recent Human Watch Pakistan’s report citing the murder of 12 educators of Punjab origin living in Baluchistan in 2010 alone, Moonis Elahi has expressed his serious concern and dismay at the unfortunate rise in target killing incidents against Punjabis settled in other parts of the country.

Moonis Elahi has accused the incumbent Punjab government of failing to protect Punjabis within Punjab and without on account of its incompetence and lust for power. He expressed these views today in Lahore during a meeting with a delegation of the Pakistan Muslim League workers belonging to his Gujrat provincial assembly constituency.

Moonis Elahi said that the people of Punjab were going through the worst time in their lives under the present Punjab government. He said that the present Punjab government on account of its poor policies and due to its lust for power had left the people totally vulnerable and unprotected against rising terrorism, crimes, poverty, unemployment and now target killings.

Moonis Elahi accused the Punjab government of not only failing in protecting the lives of the people of Punjab but also their rights. He said that this fact was evident from the present government’s role in thrusting various unjust decisions on the people of Punjab including the NFC Awards, heavy power and gas load shedding schedules and the RGST accord.

Moonis Elahi said that the N League had a long history of using the people of Punjab as a human shield in its nefarious power games. Moonis Elahi said that the target killings of Pakistanis including Punjabis were highly condemnable and it was incumbent upon the governments of Sind and Baluchistan to ensure the security and well being of all Pakistanis including the people of Punjab living there.

Suicides on the rise in Punjab due to rulers’ incompetence : Moonis Elahi

(Lahore, June 19, 2010) A pall of gloom and morbidity has enshrouded Punjab since the return of the Sharifs in 2008.The alarming rise of suicide incidents in Punjab is the direct result of the province’s economic ruin brought about by Sharif “mal-administration” in the last two and a half years. How can the poor and the jobless survive when the budgeted personal daily expenses of the self-proclaimed “Khadim –e- Aala” are well over Rs.7 lacs? Sasti-roti drama has created further hunger and deprivation in the society. These views were expressed by Moonis Elahi, central leader of Pakistan Muslim League, during a meeting with members of PML Human Rights Wing in Lahore today.

The meeting was summoned to discuss the implications of the rising number of suicides in Punjab and to explore ways for the eradication of the causes leading to this unfortunate development. Commenting on the issue, Moonis Elahi strongly criticized the rulers and held them solely responsible for the unfortunate trend. He said that Punjab was the hardest hit and the highest number of suicide incidents had been reported in Punjab in the last six months. Moonis Elahi blamed Shahbaz government for the rising pessimism in the masses forcing some of them to take their own lives.

He said that N League had made false promises with the people at election time and in the last two and half years they had given them nothing except poverty, unemployment, inflation, crimes and now suicides. The present system of governance in Punjab is based on the whims and caprices of one man which had also seriously weakened the relationship between the citizen and the state, Moonis observed.

He said that in Punjab under the coercive Sharif regime citizens’ rights were being usurped, nepotism and jobbery were the order of the day and provincial resources were being squandered on poorly planned and counter-productive schemes. Criticising the roti scheme, Moonis said that N League’s government instead of launching the much needed poverty reduction initiatives had so far only come up with poverty production schemes like the roti scheme. They have not paid a paisa of Zakat fund to the needy and it is evident that they want the proud people of Punjab to hold a begging bowl instead of hammer, chisel or pen, he alleged. He stated that these factors compounded with the self-proclaimed Khadim-e-Ala’s incapacity to understand the gravity of the situation had resulted in wide spread depression and dismay in the fast growing numbers of poor and jobless of the province.

He said that the present situation had made the poor and the weak highly vulnerable and prone to take extreme steps including self-annihilation. He warned of a further worsening of the situation if the rulers did not wake up from their slumber and started undoing the extremely adverse effects of their own follies.

Un-lawlessness in Punjab is due to N_League Government. Moonis Elahi

2009 A Year of Doom and Gloom for Punjab: Moonis Elahi

Lahore, December 31, 2009: In 2009, Punjab faced the worst period of economic depression and poor governance since independence and the people of the province spent the entire year in a severe environment of doom and gloom due to an incompetent provincial set up.

This was stated by Moonis Elahi, senior leader of Pakistan Muslim League in a meeting with party workers on the eve of the outgoing year. He said that the N League government of Punjab despite attaining power through an election kept its undemocratic agenda at full throttle and ransacked all democratic institutions including the assembly and the local governments throughout 2009.

Moonis Elahi cited the atta and sugar crises occurring in 2009 and the unfortunate deaths of 22 Pakistanis while standing in flour rows as the darkest examples of the N League government’s poor performance in Punjab. Moonis Elahi while lashing out at the poor performance of Punjab government in 2009 also pointed out at the alarming increase in unemployment, inflation and crimes in the province. He further said that various previously unheard of anti-people steps and tactics were also freely employed by the N League government in the ending year including use of brute police force to suppress and torture farmers, teachers, students, clerks, industrial workers and other underprivileged sections of the country’s largest province. Commenting on Punjab’s poor economic performance in 2009, Moonis Elahi reminded the party workers present in the meeting that in 2007 Punjab was a financially surplus province but in 2009 due to the present Punjab regime’s incompetence, Punjab had come to the verge of financial bankruptcy.

He strongly criticized the “Punjab for Sale” policy where valuable provincial assets were being auctioned to service the huge provincial debts amassed by an incompetent “Neelaam (auction) League” government in the last two years. Moonis Elahi also quoted President Zardari’s comments made in a speech at Larkana where he sounded highly critical of the poor performance of his coalition partners in Punjab. The senior leader of Pakistan Muslim League said that the internal tug of war between the centre and Punjab had greatly hampered progress in the province and had given the criminal and terrorist elements an open field to target the innocent in the year 2009. Moonis Elahi urged party workers to stand united and prayed for better times in 2010 for Punjab and Pakistan.