Ghulam Sarwar says ready to face accountability in R3 project

TAXILA: Federal Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan said here on Sunday that Rawalpindi Ring Road (R3) project would not be politicised at any cost and ready to face any kind of investigations and accountability in this regard to clear him.

He said this while talking to media at his residence in Pind Nowsheri Town, Tehsil Taxila.

He said there was no rift or grouping in Pakistan Tehreek Insaf (PTI) and it was united under the leadership of Imran Khan, but some members of opposition parties were trying to flourish negative propaganda of grouping in PTI for their vested interest. Ghulam Sarwar claimed that he and his family members had neither acquired nor sold any piece of land on both sides of the proposed route of the Ring Road. “We neither had any land in the past nor acquired any land currently,” he said.

The minister also clarified that he or any of his family members had no association with any housing society. He said his family did politics for the last 50 years, considering it a public service and never took any financial gain.

To a question, Ghulam Sarwar said it was a project of national importance like Tarbela and Mangla dams, and must be executed and completed at every cost, no matter what alignment was taken as final. He said all major cities had bypasses or ring roads, but unfortunately the twin cities project faced inordinate delay for the reasons unknown, depriving the residents of Rawalpindi and Islamabad of the facility.

Responding to a question, the minister said with timely action, the government had saved losses to the national exchequer in the Rawalpindi Ring Road project.

To another question, he said that no development funds were being issued to any members of the national or provincial assemblies.

He said that the present government would initiate Rawalpindi R3 project and Prime Minister Imran Khan would be the chief guest at the ground breaking ceremony of this mega event.

He said that uniform accountability process would remain intact and Jahangir Khan Tareen (JKT) was fighting legal battle to prove himself innocent.