Pak Punjab governor blasts government for denying Taliban presence in province
By ANISaturday, June 19, 2010
Lahore, Jun.19 (ANI): Continuing his spat with the provincial government, Pakistan’s Punjab province Governor Salmaan Taseer has blasted the government for living in denial over the presence of Taliban in the region.
In an interview with a British news channel, Taseer said despite there being clear indications that Punjab based attackers had targeted the two Ahmedi sect mosques in Lahore last month, the government was hesitant to accept the fact.
“Terrorists don’t have public support and people just hate them,” The Daily Times quoted Taseer, as saying.
He also criticised Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif for spending billions of rupees on the ‘Sasti Roti’ scheme, and said that it was only an attempt to gain cheap publicity.
The Punjab government is spending billions of rupees in Lahore in the name of the scheme saying that development expenditures in the city was 30,000 rupees per head, whereas 300 to 400 rupees was being spent in the other districts, the governor said.
“The policy of discrimination is breeding an inferiority complex in southern Punjab,” Taseer added. (ANI)
