PML-N leader questions minister’s BRT cost claim

PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (MPL-N) provincial spokesman, Ikhtiar Wali, has ridiculed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Minister Shaukat Yousafzai’s statement about the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project and termed it a pack of lies.

In a statement here on Friday, he challenged Shaukat Yousafzai for a debate on any forum to prove the fact about the much-delayed Bus Rapid Transit and increase in its cost.

He said the minister had broken all the records of lies of his masters, saying the project cost had reached Rs80 billion against Shaukat’s claim of 29 billion.

The PML-N leader said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Asad Umar had once claimed to construct the metro bus project with eight billion cost.

He argued that due to rise in dollar’s value, the Bus Rapid Transit cost had increased as the government had to repay the loans from a French company and Asian Development Bank (ADB) while the Peshawar Development Authority (PDA) was demanding more funds for the project.

Throwing a challenge to Shaukat Yousafzai, he said only 6 per cent work on the Bus Rapid Transit had been completed so far under the new deadline instead of the minister’s claim of 87 per cent.

Ikhtiat Wali said the minister can decide the forum, place and time and he would prove what the actual cost of the Bus Rapid Transit was and how much work has been done on the project so far.