Just a few days after attending a dinner hosted by the ever- cheerful American admirer of Pakistanis namely US Consul-General Zachary Harkenrider, I happened to attend another dinner that was not only enlightening but it also carried all the ingredients of lightning. And in the latter event I was accompanied by a good few media seniors from both print and electronic media.
Yes, it was a complete flash of lightning i.e lightning of passion that was oozing out of Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif while discussing the topic that he adores the most, I mean Orange Line Train project that he says time and again, is a gift from the time-tested well-wisher of Pakistan namely People’s Republic of China. And a gift of love it certainly is, this thing I firmly believe in the backdrop of my own visits to China where senior Chinese leaders praised Mian Shahbaz Sharif’s devotion and hard work publicly when they came to know that I belong to the same city where Shahbaz Sharif is located.
Had some outsider been present there during the CM’s dinner and listened to the passionate talk delivered by the CM, he would have been left with no choice other than agreeing to all the utterances of the Punjab chief executive, at least on the fact of it. It just can’t be called mere restlessness or zealotry. Some kind of substance has to be there that is manifesting in all this passion, zeal and zest. And by the way if some restlessness made the CM pick up a handy mike and address the media while standing by the video screen, this restlessness too hints at the ‘fire within’ ignited probably by compassion.
An intellectually alive figure present among us likened it to the self-abnegation of a few princes of the bygone days who abandoned the worldly riches and ambitions to serve the ailing, suffering humanity.
I think the CM spoke with his innermost, unpolluted conviction that translated into zeal and zest of a much higher degree than usually exuded by the CM.
All the media seniors including me raised many questions. Though some were answered by Sibtain Fazle Haleem, the CM took it as his duty to answer each and every query not only with his emotions and sentiments but also with technically sound statistics. It was in fact a comparative analysis with information about background processes and rigmarole involved including legal bottlenecks.
Many encouraging precedents were brought to the fore according to which countries like India had to demolish temples for the sake of metro project.
Likewise, the track had to be laid down through Jamek Mosque of Malaysia. In Rome, the distance of Metro train from the historical Colosseum of Roman kingdom’s days was 12.48 meters. In India the metro train passed just at a distance of 50 meters from Karnataka High Court and also passed beside the boundary walls of Madras Law College and other heritage sites. The media seniors were also informed on the basis of authentic data that superior courts in England, India and some other countries gave verdicts in favour of metro train project considering it most beneficial for the general public. And as for the cost comparison the Core cost plus contingencies per kilometer come out to US $ 59.95 for Lahore’s Orange Line train project whereas the cost was 60.7 for Mumbai metro train and 64.3 in Jaipur while Jakarta project costs 117.11 US $ per km.
So, we arrive at the conclusion that Hosh (reason) is going here side by side with Josh (zeal) rather the zeal is acting like fuel for the engine of growth though the outburst of zeal during the subsequent seminar on Orange Train broke all the records of sentimental speeches made by any political leader as Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif made the entire spectrum of society his witness to stand by him in his fight against ‘Ashrafia’ (the elite) who don’t want any such project to mature which means salvation for the depressed, distressed masses.
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