News Analysis |
Ousted Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif along with his daughter Maryam Nawaz roared in Peshawar at the rally held near motorway toll plaza to demonstrate power in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) capital. Nawaz made scathing attacks on PTI’s performance in KP and lamented Imran for his dismal performance in the province in last 4-years.
Throughout his speech, Nawaz mocked Imran Khan and attacked his policies in the province.
He asked the participants in the rally, “Where is the Naya Pakistan? Can you see it anywhere”?
The main theme of this address was no different. Nawaz continued the same rhetoric, and he again asked the audiences in Peshawar, ‘is it a crime to not draw a salary from your son’s company.’ In an attempt to gain sympathy from the public, he said, ‘I was disqualified for this crime.
The general election of 2018 will be the litmus test for Imran’s claims of real change. Imran’s notable improvements in KP may not be highly marketable
The detailed July 28th judgment reflected that Nawaz Sharif denied in court throughout the case proceedings that he never received a salary from from his son’s company Capital FZE. Contrary to his claims, evidence revealed that Nawaz Sharif was, in fact, the chairman of the board and was drawing salaries from Capital FZE. His public claims were false, and he also lied in the petitions filed with the apex court. He also failed to disclose these details for income tax returns or to the Election Commission of Pakistan.
Despite these factual records available in the public domain, he fails to acknowledge it. And once again accused Imran Khan of lying day and night and yet he was declared ‘Sadiq and Ameen’ by Supreme Court.
The ousted PM continued his attack on the judiciary and took a jibe at the chief Justice Saqib Nisar. ‘I salute the people [judges] who have declared him Sadiq and Amin’, he said, The proceedings of the Panama case remained in public domain extensively, and Nawaz apparently failed to present any money trail on alleged ill-gotten wealth and properties purchased in London. While, Imran Khan presented a plethora of evidence and past transaction records on financial dealings. Based on the evidence presented, he was declared truthful and honest. But, post disqualification, Nawaz continues to mix these two completely different cases to gain leverage and confuse the public.
A ratio of doctors per 1000 people surged from 0.16 to 0.24. Similarly, the number of operations in hospitals has doubled, and students are switching from private schools to government schools.
Though, in contrast to the claims of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) senior leadership, Imran Khan and Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak have categorically stated the provincial government generated 78 Mega Watt (MW) of electricity and projects for 4,000 MW are under construction.
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Nawaz in his address questioned PTI’s development and administrative abilities in the last 4-years.
He asked, what did you do Imran Khan? Did you end the load shedding? Imran accused PML-N government of lying in a press conference on January 31st and, held them responsible for hindering the production of electricity through hydel projects. Despite generating the capacity to produce cheap electricity, the federal government is not willing to purchase it, said CM Khattak.
Imran Khan presented a plethora of evidence and past transaction records on financial dealings. Based on the evidence presented, he was declared truthful and honest.
However, the KP government is constructing the projects that are small and none of them are above 40MW of capacity. Minister for Power Division Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari said the electricity generated should be provided to local Disco rather than connecting them with national grid because it is not economically viable as it costs more than the actual cost of hydel projects.
KP can disagree on the planning issues, but absolute denial of CM Shehbaz and then Nawaz in Peshawar is unbelievable as their minister admitted a few days ago that KP’s individual projects are smaller than 40MW, he did not say they did not produce electricity as claimed by Nawaz in Peshawar.
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Taking advantage of the recent fiasco of KP’s police where it showed utter negligence in transporting the samples of 243 suspects in a murder case of four-year-old Asma, Nawaz lashed out at PTI for failing to establish a forensic laboratory in the province. He said cases like Asma’s would not be dealt with such negligence if KP had a forensic laboratory.
Nawaz made scathing attacks on PTI’s performance in KP and lamented Imran for his dismal performance in the province in last 4-years.
However, Nawaz failed to mention the work of KP government in improving the health and education sector. One of the most reputed international magazines, ‘The Economist’ lauded the efforts of the KP government. The new legislations in KP require to pin wayward doctors to their official place of work. Before PTI took over, in 2013, senior doctors in government hospitals would only appear for a few hours and in some cases for only an hour, before, returning to their private clinics, taking with them those patients who can afford to pay.
Read more : Nawaz Sharif takes a jab at Imran Khan and PTI
There is increasing evidence of a decline in corruption in KP as well. The transformation of hospitals and schools is heartening, and massive expenditures on motorcades are shunned. PTI appointed more than 40,000 teachers in schools, and a ratio of doctors per 1000 people surged from 0.16 to 0.24. Similarly, the number of operations in hospitals have doubled, and students are switching from private schools to government schools.
The World Economic Forum and many independent institutions have praised and admired the transparent implementation of the Billion Tree Tsunami project. Those trying to criticize these reforms are the one who have seen their interests damaged immensely in the due process to uproot the beneficiaries of the old system.
Nawaz was able to gather a large crowd. The slogan was raised against the incompetency of Imran Khan. Nawaz claimed, Imran is headed out, and a new government of PML-N will solve the issues of KP.
Read more : PMLN’S Strategy to get PTI disqualified?
KP people have always been ruthless in accountability and always vote out the underperforming regimes. Both sides are playing politics. Some play on facts and other chose to kick start a campaign of propaganda. The general election of 2018 will be the litmus test for Imran’s claims of real change. Imran’s notable improvements in KP may not be highly marketable because they are long-term solutions, however, whether this strategy will work for him only time will tell.