Shahbaz expresses ignorance about aliens

KARACHI: Expressing his position on the Saaf Pani scam, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz President and former Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif has said he has already responded to the National Accountability Bureau questions but despite that an impression is being made that he is shying away from accountability.

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, he said he discovered corruption in the Saaf Pani project and took action against it. “Where was NAB then?” he added “I am ready to give account of my government’s five years' performance.”

He said the country will progress only if the upcoming general elections were held free and fair. Apparently skipping a question about the term ‘aliens’ that his party leader, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, coined, he said he did not know about their existence.

Besides his native province, the PML-N president is also contesting election from Karachi’s NA-249 (Baldia Town and Mominabad). He said his party has kept its options for an alliance in Sindh open. About the impression that he may join hands with the Grand Democratic Alliance, he said he would like to meet the alliance chief Pir Pagara Sibghatullah Shah Rashidi, whenever he gives him time.

He claimed that he will make Karachi ‘even better’ than Lahore if he could secure the mandate. He pointed out that the city lacks the basic necessities and the rural parts of Sindh are in worse condition. “We [PML-N] restored peace in the city and we will put it on the path of progress once again,” he said. “That is why I am contesting elections from here. Now I will not return until I achieve this.”

He said Karachi is generating most revenues for the national exchequer but it is still subjected to injustice and not given due rights. He said the disastrous mismanagement of solid waste can be seen in the form of big heaps of garbage everywhere in the city and there was not even potable water for the people.

Mentioning that the Nawaz government provided Rs19 billion to the Green Line project for Karachi, he said there should have been more. Given a chance, he will make at least 10 metro bus lines and three orange train lines for the city, he added.

Talking about the youth, he said the country’s 60 percent population is aged between 16 and 30 and to empower them he will ensure the State Bank of Pakistan issues easy terms loans to them. He also pledged to build more educational institutions if he won the election.

He said the country’s critical challenge is the availability of fresh water and we need several smaller dams to cope with the emerging crisis. “Instead of wasting time by debating over Kalabagh Dam, we should make Basha Dam,” he added, “If we depend on India for water, we may be doomed.”

Later, addressing a public meeting in Lyari, he criticised the Pakistan People's Party and said its leaders plundered money and took it to Dubai. He said the Rangers restored peace in the area that was tasked to them by the deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

Taking a jibe at PPP Co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari, he chanted a slogan: “Mazdoor ka hai or hari ka, Sindh nahi Zardari ka (Sindh belongs to laborers and peasants, not to Zardari).” He asked people to vote for his party and he will bring an improvement in all spheres of their lives.

Azeem Samar adds: The President of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), Mian Shahbaz Sharif, has said he is all for forming a national government with the involvement of all the stakeholders if the PML-N gets to serve the country.

Talking to senior journalists, editors, and TV anchorpersons, he said “only a national government could confront the internal and external challenges.” Shahbaz Sharif, however, clarified that those were his personal views and not that of his party. “Please don’t hold me accountable if it doesn’t happen because the party has to endorse my view. I am the president (of the party) but there is a central working committee, which has to take the decision,” he said. Shahbaz also launched the national level electoral campaign of his party.

Hoping there would be free and fair general elections in the country, Shahbaz said “there is no option other than to conduct fair and free elections, and the new government should reflect the collective voice and thinking of the people.”

The former Punjab chief minister said if the PML-N is not elected, then we will cooperate with whichever party comes into power. “This has to be done as the country needs this arrangement,” said Sharif. He said no single person or entity is capable of confronting the complex challenges the country is currently facing. Collective thinking and wisdom has to be applied to steer the country out of all the crises, he said.

Enumerating some of the challenges the newly-elected government will have to deal, Sharif included handling of geo-political situation, managing the country’s youth bulge, maintaining regional peace, tackling the situation emerging on the eastern border, and most importantly the revival of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor project.

Shahbaz said the nation has to take certain strict decisions to remain competitive and superior in economy, trade, and industry, particularly in its stiff competition with India. The PML-N president said the military option could never be exercised to settle the disputes between Pakistan and India as armies of both the neighbours were nuclear armed. “Instead, Pakistan has to compete with India in the fields of research, technology, textiles, innovation, and literature as we lag behind our neighbor in all these areas,” he said.

Speaking about the Kalabagh Dam, the former Punjab chief minister said that is not at all an option for resolving the impending water crisis in the country. “No doubt, the Kalabagh Dam has to be built in Punjab but it could not be constructed at the cost of harmony and unity of the nation,” he said.

He, however, said only the construction of Basha Dam could provide effective solution to water problem for which land was purchased by the government with a cost of $100 billion while the project’s feasibility study was also prepared. Shahbaz said as much as $12 to 13 billion are required for the construction of the dam, which have to be generated through the country’s own resources and with the help of foreign donors. Basha, he said, would generate massive electricity while serving as a large reservoir of water.

Speaking about the Green Line Project, Shahbaz said the previous federal government spent around Rs 19 billion to build the infrastructure of the Green Line section of the Rapid Bus Transit Service (BRTS) in Karachi. He said the corridor of Green Line bus project would also be completed soon, but the Sindh government failed to purchase buses for the project as part of the provincial input.

“The buses could not be purchased by the provincial government despite signing agreement as some people from here went to the country from where the buses had to be imported and demanded ‘sweets’ from them. They were refused the sweets, due to which the buses could not be procured,” he said.

If given chance again, Shahbaz said the PML (N) would build three sections of BRTS project in Karachi including the ongoing Green Line project. He said the PML-N would also arrange buses for Green Line project in Karachi without involving in dubious procurement deals.

The president PML-N also pledged to resolve the water shortages in Karachi within three years. He said the next PML-N government would also address solid waste management of Karachi in six months.

Shahbaz said the National Accountability Bureau should conduct across-the-board accountability, and only their transparent working would be appreciated by the public. Shahbaz Sharif said he was fully answerable for the actions taken during his stint as the Punjab chief minister as he was ready to face accountability. He said during the last 10 years as chief minister Punjab, he saved Rs680 billion by various initiatives to stop pilferage and leakages of financial resources. The former chief minister Punjab claimed that he managed to save Rs 160 billion alone through the power generation projects.

He said the previous federal and Punjab government installed new power projects with total generation capacity of 10,000 MWs and were built with much lesser cost as compared to similar projects constructed by the previous regimes.

The PML-N president said the Election Commission of Pakistan should hold an in-camera briefing to inform the caretaker federal and provincial governments about the threats and risks it is perceiving for the upcoming general elections. He said the ECP is not supposed to keep the relevant authorities in the dark about the threats as it could seriously jeopardise peaceful holding of the elections.