Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari on Friday defended the eyebrow-raising 60-page supplement published by the Punjab government, calling the PTI\u2019s criticism against it \u201cpropaganda\u201d.<\/p>\n
A newspaper supplement published on February 26, 2025, highlighting the Punjab government\u2019s performance in its first year under Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, generated debate and questions on social media.<\/p>\n
Former PPP senator Farhatullah Babar was among those criticising the move on X, calling the supplement a \u201cmonstrosity at the public expense. He also called out the Punjab government for publishing 170 photographs of Maryam in the first 30 pages, terming it a \u201cmonstrous disservice to her and her government.\u201d<\/p>\n
During a press conference today, Bokhari defended the move, saying that, \u201cIt\u2019s very important to counter the fake propaganda (around the supplement).<\/p>\n
\u201cThe performance of the Punjab government, over the last year, has been exemplary,\u201d she stated, adding that it was not possible to go \u201cdoor-to-door\u201d to make people aware of the government\u2019s health and Kisaan cards, therefore, the government published the supplement to spread awareness.<\/p>\n
In an apparent reference to the PTI, she said, \u201cOne political party and its workers were agitated\u201d by the performance of the Punjab government.<\/p>\n
She said that the supplement was not about highlighting Maryam but that it detailed the projects undertaken by the government under her leadership.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I will tell you about her projects in a bit,\u201d she said, all the while criticising the advertisement supplement published by former Punjab chief minister and PTI leader Usman Buzdar during Imran Khan\u2019s tenure.<\/p>\n
She pointed out that Buzdar\u2019s supplement was \u201can empty page\u201d because \u201cthe party did not have any projects to be proud of\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd during his government\u2019s first 100 days, he published an empty page because they were busy in other things,\u201d she said, adding that the party was busy \u201ctaking money from officers for transfers and posting\u201d and in \u201csugar and wheat scandals\u201d.<\/p>\n
Her remarks referred to a 2023 case registered by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) against Bushra Bibi\u2019s friend Farhat Shahzadi alias Farah Khan, who allegedly received millions of rupees from some bureaucrats for transfers and postings during Buzdar\u2019s tenure.<\/p>\n
She highlighted that journalists \u2014 allegedly a part of the propaganda \u2014 had been receiving \u201cinstructions\u201d to speak out against the supplement.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom yesterday, they [PTI] have started this campaign \u2019projects of Tehreek-i-Insaaf, plaque of Maryam Nawaz, \u2019\u201d she said. \u201cI have dissected the supplement published by PTI during its tenure \u2014 they owned all the projects mentioned therein, but none of the projects had any truth to it, nor was there any follow-up.\u201d<\/p>\n
She stressed that the municipal system and the government hospital\u2019s dialysis programme were already present before PTI\u2019s era.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis dialysis programme was also not initiated by Buzdar\u2019s [government] \u2014 it was started during Shehbaz Sharif\u2019s time, because of which 1,100 people in two weeks got their dialysis done,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
She also said \u201cslogans of air ambulance\u201d had been chanted before during various governments, but Maryam Nawaz \u201cactually implemented it\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari on Friday defended the eyebrow-raising 60-page supplement published by the Punjab government, calling the PTI\u2019s criticism against it \u201cpropaganda\u201d. A newspaper supplement published on February 26, 2025, highlighting the Punjab government\u2019s performance in its first year under Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, generated debate and questions on social media. Former PPP […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6107,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6106"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6108,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6106\/revisions\/6108"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}