LAHORE: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Thursday lashed out at the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government over a shortage of life-saving drugs in the market.
Attacking Prime Minister Imran Khan and Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar, PPP Information Secretary for South Punjab Shahzad Saeed Cheema said that 30 million live-saving tablets are missing from the market.
“I think those tablets were eaten by the frontmen of PM Imran Khan and CM Usman Buzdar,” claimed the PPP leader.
The PPP leader added that in Punjab dengue has reached an alarming level but the provincial and the city district government are restricted to closed-door tea and biscuit meetings only.
While criticising the CM for leaving the masses alone during a crisis, Cheema maintained that CM Buzdar had left for Saudi Arabia to perform Umra and left the 110 million people of Punjab alone to face dengue and the sugar mafia.
“He [Usman Buzdar] should have stayed in Punjab with his people at the time of this crisis. After all, he was the head of the province. How could he leave the masses like this?” Cheema asked.
Criticising the CM for being a slow learner, he added that Buzdar during his three years in power neither managed to learn the art of speaking or writing.
“If the CM house will be managed through Whatsapp and magic how will the condition of the province improve?” Cheema asked.
On the other hand, spokesperson of PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz Mohammad Zubair told Bol News that when dengue first surfaced 10 years ago no one had a clue on how to deal with it. He claimed that the government officials learnt this when former Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif sent a team to Sri Lanka for training and capacity building.
“He [Shehbaz] burnt the midnight oil in developing a proper mechanism, SOPs, ensured timely sprays and put hospitals on high alert and dealt with dengue on war footings in an effective manner,” said the former Sindh governor.
“It is completely disastrous that the life-saving drugs are missing from the market and the people have to suffer due to the mismanagement of the sitting government,” he deplored.
CM Buzdar takes notice of missing drugs
Earlier on Wednesday, CM Buzdar, despite being in Saudi Arabia, directed the provincial health minister and secretary of health to ensure the availability of the fever medicine at all medical stores of the province.
“Submit me the report after inspecting the records of medicine companies and stock lists,” CM Buzdar said in the orders. He also directed officials that supply and demand should be regularly checked to ensure the availability of the medicine.
However, Punjab’s Health Minister Dr Yasmeen Rashid informed CM Buzdar that the medicines were available at the medical stores due to effective steps taken by the government and dismissed claims of a shortage.
