Shehbaz Sharif given clean chit in laptop scheme

LAHORE: The Punjab government on Tuesday gave clean chit to Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif with regard to a laptop scheme he launched during his tenure as chief minister of Punjab.

The Higher Education Department, in its written reply to a question submitted in Punjab Assembly, stated the former chief minister purchased the laptops from the firm quoting extremely low prices.

It said the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Lahore had been conducting an inquiry since March 2018, but not a single individual was found guilty of corruption.

The former government distributed 414,848 laptops on the basis of merit from 2012 to 2017, read the reply.

According to the government report, 110,000 laptops, purchased in 2011-12, cost Rs4197 million, where Rs3995 million were spent on 100,000 laptops purchased in 2012-13.

It further said that Rs4949 million and Rs6954 million were spent on the purchase of laptops in 2013-14 and 2016-17 respectively.

The Higher Education Department admitted in its report that neither any corruption could be found in laptops' distribution, nor had any of the gadgets gone missing.

It said the allegation of involvement of politicians or bureaucrats in irregularities with regard to laptops' distribution was also not true.

It is pertinent to mention here that reports had surfaced with regard to alleged irregularities in Punjab chief minister's laptop scheme.

The NAB had also initiated an inquiry against former director general of Lahore Development Authority (LDA) Ahad Cheema with regard to the scheme.