PAT President Dr Raheeq Abbasi has said that corruption of Rs. 150 billion was committed in the local government institutions during the seven years of PML-N government. He said that PAT would purge the local government institutions of corruption and convert them into centres of public service. He said that ten-point agenda of Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri is the guarantee of progress and prosperity, adding that expecting the present leadership that is ill-disposed to the local government system to mend its ways is futile. He asked the people to exercise their vote for ‘bucket’ in the upcoming elections in cantonment boards.

The PAT President expressed these views while addressing the election campaigns of various PAT candidates in Cantonment and Walton areas of Lahore yesterday. The PAT workers from ward numbers 3, 5,6, 7, 8,9 and 10 took out a large rally of cars, buses and motorbikes from Amer Sadhi under the leadership of Dr Raheeq Abbasi. They lifted the PAT President on their shoulders and danced to the party and national anthems.

Earlier, Dr Abbasi, Raja Nadeem, Hafiz Ghulam Farid and others were given a red carpet welcome by the local notables on their arrival in the area. The streets of Walton reverberated with the slogans of PAT workers. The people gave a positive response to the PAT leaders during their visit to various streets and localities.

The people expressed their extreme anger on the poor state of development of their areas. They said that suspension of the local government institutions resulted in huge problems for them. They said that they had no one to turn to for resolution of their issues in the absence of local government institutions. They said that the Chief Minister of Punjab usurped the rights of the local government institutions through LDA, adding that time to hold LDA accountable has come. They said that they would free their local institutions of the iron-clad clutches of MNAs and MPAs and use their vote as agent of change.