CHITRAL: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman Imran Khan said on Tuesday that it was the first time in the country’s history when the big and the mighty were being held accountable for their corrupt practices.
He was addressing a gathering at the inauguration ceremony for a small-scale hydroelectric power project in Chitral.
“They have looted your money,” the PTI chief said.
Referring to the ongoing probe into money laundering allegations against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s family, Khan said the Sharifs stole taxpayers’ money and then laundered it. “Now, when they’re asked for explanations for the source of their family’s fortunes, they feign innocence,” he says.
Referring to PML-N leaders’ statements on summons issued for Maryam Nawaz by the Joint Investigation Team, Khan asked, “The princess has been summoned so they are making hue and cry. Have they forgotten the time when Benazir Bhutto was made to appear before JITs?”
He said lack of potable water and healthcare facilities and a crippling power shortage were the three major problems faced by the country. “You will be surprised to know that contaminated water is responsible for most of the deaths of children in Pakistan. This is extremely embarrassing,” he said to the gathering.
Khan said the drinking water situation in Karachi was the worst. “The tankers’ mafia is minting money. The state has failed to fulfil its responsibility of supplying clean water to the citizens,” he said.
My party’s policy is to ensure provision of basic necessities of the people. “That is a fundamental right of our people and should be the responsibility of the government,” he said.
Khan lashed out at the government for failing to shift away from electricity produced with expense imported fuel. The electricity produced in the country was expensive because of the government’s reliance on imported fuel paid for by borrowed money, he said. “More taxes will be imposed on the people already burdened with taxes to return these loans” he said. Khan said Pakistan was meeting its energy needs through power produced from imported fuel. “Our future is dependent on hydroelectricity. When we relied on hydropower in the 1960s, electricity prices were low and there was no need for load-shedding,” he held.
He said the PTI-led government in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa had completed 55 micro-hydel projects in Chitral. Feasibility study of another 1,000 micro-hydel stations had been completed, he added.
Khan praised the people of Chitral for electing an MNA from a Pakistan Muslim League faction headed by former military dictator, General (retd) Pervez Musharraf. He said the people voted for the MNA because of the Lowari tunnel project comp under Musharraf’s government.
Published in Daily Times, July 5th , 2017.
