“PM is inaugurating PML-N’s uplift projects which once  he ridiculed”

KHURRAM DASTAGIR, PML-N LEADER

Prime Minister Imran Khan, who inaugurated the much awaited Green Line Bus Project on December 10 and stated that no modern city could function without a modern transportation system while declaring Karachi as Pakistan’s ‘engine of growth,’ has once more taken a U-turn when it comes to the development of the Green Line Bus Project. This is a change as Imran Khan’s rhetoric while in opposition, when his party held the government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) from 2013 to 2018, was anti-infrastructure and anti-development. His argument was that nations do not develop because of roads and transport, and he used to ridicule rapid-transit buses in Lahore, Islamabad, and Multan as jangla buses.

Imran Khan also took a U-turn in the run-up to the 2018 election when he realised that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf’s (PTI) KP government had no development to show to the people, and hastily planned the Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit, a project crippled by mismanagement, bad planning and a massively embezzled budget.

The irony is profound. Imran Khan has been forced to inaugurate Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) initiated development projects – such as Karachi Green Line – which he used to ridicule. He has failed catastrophically in finding a single rupee of embezzled funds in Pakistan where PML-N projects initiated under the leadership of visionary former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and former Chief Minister of Punjab Shehbaz Sharif are concerned. This includes all projects whether it’s the motorways, Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT) which we had initiated under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Lahore, Islamabad and Multan Metro Bus projects, Azadi Chowk Interchange in Lahore, Peshawar Mor Interchange in Islamabad, Danish Schools, Ring Road Lahore, Safe City projects, Dolphin Police  Force and the list goes on and on. But unfortunately, even more disastrously for the people of Pakistan, Imran Khan is singularly incapable of envisioning future infrastructure, depriving the public of jobs as well as a vision of Pakistan’s future.

Development is not in Imran Khan and the PTI’s DNA. He cannot envision it, does not understand it and does not know how to manage it.

All the PM can do is carry out the ground breaking ceremonies of the projects initiated during PML-N’s tenure again and then try to take the credit for the project. I strongly condemn the act of the Imran Khan led government which stopped PML-N Secretary General Ahsan Iqbal along with PML-N workers and other party leaders, including Muhammad Zubair, Miftah Ismail, Kheal Das Kohistani, Nehal Hashmi, Sorath Thebo and Ali Akbar Gujjar, who had reached the site on December 9 for a symbolic inaguratuion of the Green Line Project. I do not understand why they tortured our workers and PML-N leaders who had just just come to the site of this project for a symbolic inaguration as the project was initiated by the PML-N government in 2016 and its foundation was laid by our leader Nawaz Sharif.

“The PTI rebrands old projects and claims them as its own”

SHARMILA FAROOQI, PPP LEADER

What the PM Imran Khan led PTI government does and what their modus operandi is, the rebranding of everything to their own convenience. This is exactly what they did with the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) which was started by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government in July 2008, which ensured cash transfers to vulnerable and deserving women and their families from the poorest households across the country irrespective of political affiliations, racial identity, geographic location, and religious beliefs.

It was not the only revolutionary programme, but under BISP banner, Waseela-e-Haq, Waseela-e-Rozgar and Waseela-e-Taleem were launched which had managed to reach as many as 1.3 million people. However, what the Imran Khan government did is that they rebranded it into Ehsaas Programme.

So, there is no innovation and there is no proactive approach to the social sector as far as they are concerned. What they do is that they take up projects and rename and rebrand them and claim it as their projects which is quite unfortunate. The same is being done with Karachi’s Green Line Project which was initiated by PML-N leader and then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 2016, and even now many of its stations are incomplete. However the PTI government still took credit of it and inaugurated an incomplete project.

PM Imran Khan has also repeated this pattern with the $7.5 billion Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project whose construction work was officially inaugurated by former President Asif Ali Zardari and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinijad in 2013.

In the same manner their are so many programmes of which PTI has tried to take credit for including a poverty alleviation program which was started by the PPP.

On one hand they abuse us and call us names but on the other hand they rename and rebrand our projects and present them as their own in front of the masses.

The PTI government has hardly managed to initiate any development projects in the country of its own but are busy in changing the foundation stones of development projects or in ground breaking of projects that were originally initiated or carried out by the PPP or PML-N. Unfortunately, the party which came to power with the slogan of change has done nothing except taking U-turns on political and other burning issues affecting the lives of masses.

It’s three years in power have been a story of incompetence, serial mismanagement and rampant corruption. You name it be its sugar, BRT, wheat, LNG, petrol, medicines or the billion trees tsunami, the government has been involved in all kinds of corruption and scandals.

But you know what there is no accountability as it has been only reserved for opposition in the so-called ‘Naya Pakistan’.

“We do not show off like our political opponents. We deliver”

MOMINA BASIT, PTI LEADER

The point raised by opposition parties including, PML-N and PPP is absolutely ridiculous and baseless. Unfortunately, it was the working style of the governments of the PPP and PML-N for decades to just place inauguration stones and carry out ground breaking ceremonies without actually initiating or completing the project.

Nawaz Sharif had inaugurated Karachi Green Line Bus Project in 2016 and said that they will complete in one year but that never happened and it is PTI’s government that burned the midnight oil, envisioned it and completed this project after removing the hurdles and lacunas attached to it due to which it got delayed for several years. As it stands now, the Green Line BRT will accommodate around 135,000 passengers daily and will have a fleet of 80 hybrid buses.

Apart from that the PM is also closely involved in the K-IV project which will resolve Karachi’s water woes for which work will start from January 2022 and will be completed by September 2023. When completed it will provide Karachi with 260 million gallons of water each day. Likewise, the Punjab OLMT Project was inaugurated by Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar because it was completed during his tenure.

The opposition alleges that the Peshawar BRT is crippled by mismanagement and bad planning but the reality is that it got an honorable mention at the Sustainable Transportation Awards 2022 and placed Pakistan on the World map in terms of sustainable transportation solutions. It is a reality check for PML-N as none of its BRTs in Lahore, Islamabad or Multan got such prestigious mention.

We have introduced Naya Pakistan For All card which is one of the biggest welfare development project initiated in the country’s history, which will provide 3.7 million households interest free housing financing upto Rs2.7 million, free vocational training of up to 3.7 million citizens, 3.7 million households interest free loans for business up to Rs0.5, interest free loans for small farmers having land upto 12.5 acres upto Rs0.5 million, health insurance of up to Rs1 million for every family and 30 per cent concession for 2 billion low income families purchasing wheat, sugar, and pulses.

Unfortunately, since Pakistan’s inception there has always been short term planning, but the PTI government under its visionary leader Imran Khan for the very first time has been planning for the long term. We are building 10 Dams in 10 years, and we are the first ones in the last 50 years or so who are trying to make dams after Mangla and Tarbela, as construction for two large dams, Diamer-Basha and Mohmand, is well underway. We are carrying out development projects at a rapid pace. In fact we believe in actual deliverance unlike showing off like our political opponents of PML-N and PPP.