PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President and Punjab Chief Minister, Shahbaz Sharif, on Wednesday resolved to make Pakistan a model state and develop Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on the pattern of Lahore if voted to power in the upcoming general elections.
Addressing a party workers convention here, he said the PML-N would continue developing the country under the vision of its leader Mian Nawaz Sharif and would make it the Pakistan of Quaid-i-Azam and Allama Iqbal. He said Engineer Amir Muqam would be the next chief minister of KP as the people had realised the real face of the claimant of change and they would vote PML-N into power in the 2018 polls.
Shahbaz Sharif said KP is his next home and this is the reason he chose it as the first province for visit after his election as the PML-N central president. Being president of the PML-N is a challenging job but he would run the party affairs in line with the vision of Nawaz Sharif who has to his credit executing mega uplift projects in the country like motorway, he said. He added that it is Nawaz Sharif who carried out nuclear tests rejecting the offer of five billion dollars from the United States. He said the PML-N government under Nawaz Sharif with the firm commitment of security forces eradicated terrorism and restored peace to a great extent.
Lashing out at the PTI leadership, Shahbaz Sharif said he had been visiting KP since an early age but had not seen the provincial capital in such a pathetic condition. "I had a different picture of Peshawar in my mind and was thinking the city of flowers would be the most developed city, there would be a modern metro bus service and youngsters would be in possession of laptops but unfortunately I saw ruined roads and a deserted city," he maintained.
He said Imran Khan used to criticise Lahore metro calling it 'jungla bus' and termed it an expensive project of Rs30 billion but his chief minister is spending Rs71 billion on the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in Peshawar and has not completed even 30 percent work on the project despite lapse of more than five months. He said executing such projects is not PTI's cup of tea. "I would supervise and complete this project in five months if voted in the coming general elections," he declared. He said the Billion Tree Tsunami is also a fraud and the Ehtesab Commission is a failed story of the PTI government. “The PTI politics is nothing more than protests, dharnas, blocking of progress and prosperity of the country and hatching conspiracies,” he argued. "How a person like Imran Khan who is telling lies day and night could face enemies of Pakistan like Narendra Modi?" he questioned.
"The PTI chief had claimed the KP would generate more electricity than its consumption and sell it to other provinces but he failed to even produce 10 megawatts and would rather shut down the 80 megawatts powerhouse built by the previous government," Shahbaz Sharif claimed. He vowed to establish 500-bed hospitals and a university in each divisional headquarters of the province if elected as prime minister.
Welcoming Siraj Muhammad Khan, a dissident PTI MNA from Nowshera, in the PML-N, he said people of KP could be no more befooled through hollow slogans of "change" and they are joining the PML-N. Siraj Muhammad Khan announced quitting the PTI and joining the PML-N, arguing he left PTI as he didn't believe in hollow slogans, dances and dharnas.
Earlier, the party's provincial President Amir Muqam welcomed Shahbaz Sharif on his maiden visit to KP after election as central president of PML-N. He said Shahbaz Sharif always extended helping hand to the people of KP in the hour of need.
"The Punjab chief minister sent relief items for the 2010 flood affected people and for the displaced people of Malakand division after the military operation and the IDPs from Fata. He also sent medical teams, medicine and equipment when the dengue virus hit Swat and Peshawar, while the PTI chief was hiding in the Galiyat and Pervaiz Khattak and his ministers were enjoying luxuries," Air Muqam pointed out.
He said Imran Khan is making tall claims of making KP self-sufficient and breaking the begging bowl but instead got loans of Rs300 billion and mortgaged the province with the world's financial bodies. He accused the PTI government of involvement in corruption in the Bus Road Transit scheme and said they would be made accountable.
Prominent among the leaders present on the occasion were adviser to PM on Aviation Sardar Mehtab Ahmad Khan, Senator Pir Sabir Shah, Minister for Religious Affairs Sardar Muhammad Yousuf, Deputy Speaker National Assembly Murtaza Javed Abbasi, MNA Shahabuddin Khan and other parliamentarians.
