Nations can’t be built by constructing roads in ads: Imran

PESHAWAR/ISLAMABAD: Lambasting the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan on Friday said that constructing roads, developing metros and running promotional advertisements in the media did not make nations.

Speaking at the certificate distribution ceremony of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Technology Board at Nishtar Hall Peshawar, he opined that strengthening institutions and investing in the people could make a strong nation.

He maintained that the PML-N-led federal government was spending huge amount of money on construction of roads, bridges and metros but did nothing to strengthen institutions.

He said the police in Punjab was politicised and serving the rulers instead of doing its real job. “This is the reason it could not trace or arrest the accused involved in the rape and murder of the seven-year-old girl Zainab in Kasur,” he argued.

The PTI chairman said the PML-N ruled Punjab for 19 years but it could not bring any reforms in the institutions or properly serve the people. “That is why the people in Kasur urged the Supreme Court and Chief of Army Staff (COAS) to help arrest the culprits involved in the gruesome molestation and murder of Zainab,” he pointed out.

Imran Khan said the PTI-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government depoliticised the police and introduced reforms in all the line departments. He said the KP Police arrested eight out of the nine accused involved in the stripping of a girl in Dera Ismail Khan within 24 hours of the incident. He said the provincial government sacked 5,000 cops for violation of discipline and negligence in its four and half years rule in KP.

The PTI leader said education was the key to development of a country, adding his party’s government took various steps to promote and improve standard of education in the state-run educational institutions. He claimed that the results of the public sector educational institutions in KP were better than those of other provinces.

Imran Khan said that a top Austrian technical education university was helping the KP government in developing a technical university in Haripur.

“An efficient system guarantees development,” he said, adding that there was an impression that bureaucracy was not willing to do its job. He said the bureaucracy can do a very good job if merit was ensured in appointments and it was given a clear direction. He said to provide employment to citizens was the state’s responsibility, but millions of Pakistanis were forced to work abroad in extremely hash and unfavourable conditions.

He maintained that the KP government successfully planted one billion saplings under the “Billion Tree Tsunami” campaign and promoted tourism.

Imran Khan claimed that a record number of tourists from across the country visited the tourist resorts in KP.

Meanwhile, the PTI central party leadership has been directed to reach Islamabad immediately. Imran Khan has called the urgent meeting of its core group. Important decisions regarding January 18 protest against the government will be made at the meeting.

The PTI has also written to chairman of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue, expressing serious concern over the sub-committee’s latency in investigating the issue of Dubai properties and money laundering involving billions of dollars.

Senior PTI leader Asad Umer in his complaint has stated that no meeting of the sub-committee to investigate the issue of Dubai properties has taken place since November 23, 2017. He maintained that he kept raising this issue for several months before the sub-committee to investigate this issue involving potentially billions of dollars of money laundering. He said initially all knowledge of the prior FIA investigations into the issue was denied.

Asad Umer said that on confronting, it was grudgingly conceded that investigations had taken place and only a few names were shared with the Sub-committee. He said he shared media reports in the meeting that more than 2,000 names were available as a result of the investigation.

He noted that after that an attempt was made to windup the sub-committee falsely stating that according to the rules the time of the sub-committee was over. That attempt to stop the work of the sub-committee, he continued, failed with correct rules being pointed out that life of the sub-committee had not come to an end.

Asad Umer stated that seemingly a new approach is being taken to stop this investigation by simply stopping any meeting of the sub-committee. He urged the chairman of the standing committee to take up this matter in the next meeting of the main committee and ascertain why the investigation is being hindered. In another development, the PTI submitted the adjournment motion in the Senate Secretariat to discuss Zainab's murder.