KASUR: Hundreds of teachers, lecturers and parents of students who won the laptops were highly frustrated by the announcement that Adviser to CM Zaeem Qadri, instead of Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, will preside over the ceremony after waiting for three hours.

The chief minister was to arrive at District Public School, the venue, at 7.30am on Friday. All the people concerned reached the venue. However, several participants left the ceremony after waiting for three hours. The district administration and the police officials had spent the last two days in making arrangements for the arrival of the chief minister. The police officials spent the Thursday night at the venue. The seating arrangements were made for 1,500 people. A holiday was declared in District Public School and the school administration had to announce the result on March 29 instead of March 31. The venue was also a centre for the matriculation exams and the candidate had to face inconvenience due to blaring loudspeakers.

At 10:30am, Adviser to CM Zaeem Hussain Qadri reached the venue and distributed 159 laptops among the students. Speaking on the occasion, Qadri said the federal government had failed to collect taxes from the people and the rulers were making up the deficit through various tactics.
He said that the federal government would further increase the petrol price by Rs 8 per litre in a few days. He accused the rulers of embezzling billions of rupees from the national exchequer. He said that daily-use items were increasing unchecked. He announced that the Punjab government would distribute 300,000 laptops after this budget. MNAs Malik Rasheed Ahmed, Sheikh Waseem Akhtar, Rao Mazhar Hayat, MPAs Naeem Safdar and Nadeem Yaqoob Sethi were also present.