LAHORE - The office-bearers of PPP Lahore organisation have expressed their dissatisfaction over performance of the Punjab government holding it responsible for poor law and order situation in the province, and its failure to check hoarding of sugar by millers and stockists. While talking at The Nation Forum on Friday, PPP Lahore president Asghar Gujjar, general secretary Akbar Khan, senior vice president Zaffar Masood Bhatti and secretary information Azhar Mughal alleged the Punjab province had become a police state where the poor had to struggle a lot to seek justice. They were of the view that there was no visible improvement in police performance despite allocation of huge resources and giving it a free hand to deal with the criminals. The tall claims of giving good governance to the people by Punjab rulers have been exposed after their failure to check hoarding of sugar and provide justice to the people, Asghar Gujjar observed, adding that Shahbaz Sharif was relying too much on bureaucracy instead of elected representatives. Replying to a question, he said that PPP ministers in Punjab cabinet were powerless, as the chief minister was not paying heed to their good advice on different issues of governance. Gujjar also accused the CM of spending millions of rupees on his personal publicity under the garb of sasti roati scheme, saying that stories of corruption in the said scheme were also making rounds in public circles due to lack of transparency in the system, the government had evolved for distribution of subsidized flour among specified tandoors. Talking about the pro-poor policies of PPP, Asghar said the federal government was spending billions of rupees to improve the lot of poor sections of society. In this regard, he made special mention of Benazir Income Support Programme initiated by the government, under which, he said 3.5 million deserving families would benefit from this scheme in many ways. The government, he added, was also planning to issue Benazir Smart Card to the poor with added benefits of getting employment, free technical education, heath facilities and subsidy on utility bills. He said BISP faced difficulties in the beginning as some MNAs mainly belonging to PML-N and PML-Q did not distribute registration forms among the poor in their respective constituencies. He hoped that things would be streamlined very soon to the benefit of the poor. Gujjar was confident that PPP government would fulfill its promise of providing roati, kapra aur makan to the marganalised sections before completion of its five -year term. He said PPP would launch membership campaign after Eidul Azha to galvanise the party at gross roots level. Under this drive, he said, 1000 members would be registered in every union council to extend party base at the lower level. To a question about working relationship between PPP and PML-N, Gujjar alleged that Nawaz Sharif was eyeing countrys premiership, as he was constantly trying to weaken the government through various means. He said PML-N leadership decided to quit federal government suspecting that country would soon go bankrupt and they would get the chance to come to power after downfall of PPP government. To a question, he said he personally believed that PPP should field a candidate against Nawaz Sharif from NA-123 in the coming by-election, and the Election Commission should allow filing of fresh nomination papers from the said constituency.