Development obsession harms health, education: PTI

LAHORE
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Punjab President Ejaz Chaudhry has said that Sharif Brothers obsession with expensive infrastructure development projects is damaging country’s health and education sectors.
In a statement, the PTI Punjab President said that in the upcoming budget, the PML-N government had decided to allocate over Rs250 billion for infrastructure sector. He said the overall development outlay was around Rs600 billion in 2015-16 budget.
He said Sharif Brothers were devoid of any vision as they kept on fueling nation’s resources on the multi-billion projects but did not think of nation building. No one is ready to invest in education and health sectors only because such projects offered minimum commissions and kickbacks to ruling elite, he added. He said these carpeted roads and metro buses were not going to develop Pakistan without education and health. He wished Sharif Brothers could for once think about nation building not the building of roads and flyovers, he added.
Secretary General Yasmin Rashid slammed the PML-N government and asked how could a nation of the illiterate survive and thrive in this competitive world where nations were investing heavily in their education system to move ahead but our political elite had no understanding of the importance of education.
If Sharif Brothers really wanted to do something positive for the nation they needed to change their priorities, she said. She said Sharif Brothers were counting chicken before they were hatched on Pak-China Economic Corridor. She questioned if China was investing on Pak-China Economic Corridor then why hefty amount was pledged for infrastructure development projects. The rulers are better advised to do something to stop terrorism first in the country. What is the point in bringing economic prosperity if our people do not feels safe, she posed a question. She said the PML-N government could not satisfy all the provinces on the Pak-China Economic Corridor project. The nation cannot afford any kind of feeling of injustice, she said. Information Secretary Andleeb Abbas said she did not understand why education and health was not on priority list of the PML-N government. She said the chief minister was going to outsource the rural health centres and basic health units in the province. By doing so, he would make health service out of the reach of the poor.