ISLAMABAD (The Thursday Times) — Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday accused the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf of doing “very little, if anything” for the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 13 years in power, questioning whether funds had been spent transparently on the province’s welfare.
Addressing a meeting of the PML-N’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa parliamentary party in Islamabad, the prime minister said the PTI had “raised countless slogans, delivered fiery speeches, held long marches and sit-ins, and made numerous promises”, recalling its pledges of hundreds of dams, solar power projects, hospitals, universities and schools.
“How many universities have been established there? How many new hospitals have been built? How much has the healthcare system improved? What facilities have actually been provided to the people? And how much corruption has taken place in the process?” he asked. “From Peshawar to Kohistan and Hazara, and across the entire southern region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the majority of people would tell you that the PTI government has done very little, if anything, to address their basic needs.”
The prime minister said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had made the greatest sacrifices in the fight against terrorism, which he said had claimed around 80,000 lives and cost the economy an estimated Rs15,000 billion, and credited Nawaz Sharif’s policies after the 2014 Army Public School massacre with largely ending terrorist activity in the province by 2017-18.
He also accused the PTI of spending the past two and a half years on long marches and protests, recalling that its 2014 sit-in had forced the postponement of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Pakistan. The remarks come as PTI lawmakers in the province seek talks with the Centre to end governor’s rule and the emergency.
The prime minister urged PML-N leaders to put long-term projects on hold in favour of quick relief measures in the province, which has been under governor’s rule since October 11. “If you take small steps to improve law and order, build a school, and ensure medicines reach hospitals, people who have been deprived for 13 years will pray for you,” he said. Under the current arrangement, Governor Faisal Karim Kundi runs the provincial government with an 11-member advisory council, while Parliament exercises the provincial assembly’s legislative powers.
