LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan on Tuesday said a single rain had exposed those who were claiming to have turned Lahore into Paris.
He said 57 per cent of Rs635 billion development budget of Punjab had annually been spent on Lahore alone, and"now I am going to check whether this hefty amount of around Rs350 billion was spent on Lahore and this city was really turned into Paris".
During his visit to rain-affected areas of the city, he said the situation of Lahore could have been different had the public money been spent on the city honestly. Imran said that Shahbaz Sharif used to say that he would also make Peshawar and Karachi, another Lahore like Paris, asserting that people had now come to know the reality of hollow claims of the past rulers.
The PTI chairman said the Sharif brothers had transformed nothing into Paris but their farmhouses of Jati Umra, citing the Sharif family had purchased lands there at the lowest price and developed it with people’s tax money instead of spending their own resources.
To a question, he said that the entire Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa development budget was Rs110 billion and Lahore alone had been getting Rs350 billion annually, adding that people must know that out this Rs350 billion, the past ruler had spent on how many public schools’ upgrading and how many universities had been established and how many people had been provided clean drinking water.
Unlike Lahore, roads and streets of Paris did not submerge in rainwater and it had advanced drainage system. People must also assess the quality of roads and other infrastructure constructed by the past government. Contrary to this, an international university of applied science was being established in Haripur (KP) with the collaboration of Austria, he mentioned.
Imran said that the upcoming general election would be a great opportunity for the people to get rid of those Pharaohs looting and plundering the country’s resources and public money for the last 30 years.
He visited the Lakshami Chowk, GPO Chowk and other low-lying areas of the metropolis, that were completely submerged due to over 250mm rain in the city. He criticised Pakistan Muslim League-N leadership for wasting billions of rupees “on unnecessary projects”.
During his visit to the city areas, he was flanked by central leader Jehangir Khan Tareen, PTI candidate from NA-125 Dr Yasmin Rashid, head of Tehreek-e-Insaf Central Punjab chapter Abdul Aleem Khan and others. Imran said Shahbaz Sharif remained the chief minister of Punjab for 10 years but failed to give an efficient sewerage system to Lahore. He said Tehreek-e-Insaf had always opposed the ‘show-off’ projects, but the Sharif brothers had no concern about the public issues. Their total attention is on minting money and getting commission on projects and plundering the national wealth.
He said the former CM was not mustering up the courage to face the public in this situation, as he had spent the public money on his own publicity and unnecessary projects. Abdul Aleem Khan, the PTI candidate from NA-129, while addressing a gathering in his constituency predicted another defeat for the PML-N on Friday when the court would announce its verdict about the Sharif family. Zubair Ashraf adds from Karachi: Criticising the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government’s performance in Punjab, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan said on Tuesday had the Sharif brothers invested “sincerely” in building and strengthening the infrastructure of Lahore, the city should not have submerged after rain.
Speaking to the media upon his arrival in the city for election campaigning on Tuesday, Khan said, “People have seen what happened in Lahore as their belongings worth billions of rupees were affected in just the first rain of the monsoon. No wonder what will happen in its further spells.”
Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif should be asked for what they have done to Lahore, he said, adding that the city looked like Venice and not Paris. Shahbaz, the former chief minister of Punjab, has at times took pride in calling Lahore a replica of Paris for his ‘development’ works.
Khan said that instead of spending on infrastructure, the PML-N government invested in Orange Trains and metro buses which, according to him, would cause billions of rupees loss to the national exchequer annually. “The progressive Lahore of Shahbaz Sharif is in front of everyone now.”
Referring to the allegations of money laundering on them, he said the Sharif brothers should answer how the money went out of the country. He added the PML-N leadership knew about the corruption of these brothers.
Talking about the upcoming general election, he asked the people to vote for ideologies instead of personalities this time. Presenting himself as a better option among others, Imran said that he wanted to put the country off the loans and ensure availability of fresh water, which had almost become a rare commodity.
Later, while inaugurating an orphanage built by PTI-affiliated FixIt campaign in Memon Goth, he said that a person should not be bitten by the same snake twice and to avoid that, people should reject in polls those who had been taking their chances again and again to rule the country.
“In Europe, even dogs have rights but here no one even cares about the humans,” he commented, “It is the responsibility of the state to provide medical, education and employment to its people. It’s unfortunate that the public money doesn’t get spent on public.”
He claimed that the PTI will make the next government at the Centre after gaining success across the country. Asserting that his party had a long term plan for the country, he asked the people to vote for those who thought of and prepared for the challenges in the years to come and not just about the elections. He said that to fight the effects of global warming, his party’s former government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had planted over a billion trees.
About Karachi, he said that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, which for the past 30 years had been in power in the city, never cared about the metropolis’ future. He said the PTI only had a competition with the Pakistan People's Party in Sindh and when it could not do any good in its past 10 years of power, it would not do any better in the next five years.
APP adds: Addressing the media after arriving in Karachi, as a part of his ongoing election campaign, Imran Khan said that the General Election falling on July 25 would be ideological as the political parties would have to explain to the voter the ideology behind asking for the vote. Imran said that it was important to keep ground realities in consideration while electing a new party into power. He said that after the water crisis came to the fore, people are worried about the water woes. “People used to mock us for the Billion Tree Tsunami project, but now they know,” said Imran.
He said that the PTI manifesto would also focus on environmental issues and how to conserve more water and grow plants. The PTI chairman is scheduled to tour different areas of the metropolis during his two-day visit. "He will also lay the foundation stone of an orphanage in Memon Goth," a party spokesperson said.
Imran Khan on Tuesday took to Twitter to post a message for “all those Pakistanis who are intending not to vote in the coming historical [sic] elections on July 25”. "A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything", the PTI chairman said quoting assassinated American-Muslim activist Malcolm X. Later, during the day, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's daughter, Maryam Nawaz, responded to Imran's tweet.
"What do you stand for? Khalayi Makhlooq (aliens)? Conspiracies? Umpire ki ungli (Umpire's finger)? [Senate chairman] Sadiq Sanjrani? Dictations? Sponsored dharnas [rallies]? Sponsored politics?" she asked the PTI chairman.