PML-N’s priorities are misplaced, says Aitezaz

Says death of some of the injured in the blast could have been avoided if hospitals were better equipped

LAHORE: Pakistan Peoples Party Senator Aitezaz Ahsan on Saturday condemned the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government for spending billions of rupees on mega infrastructure projects but ignoring the basic needs of the people.

He was addressing a press conference at Lahore Press Club.

The senator was accompanied by a group of residents of the NA-124, constituency from where his wife Bushra Aitezaz had lost to a PML-N candidate in the general election of 2013.

Ahsan said most residents of the constituency lacked access to clean drinking water. Showing a bottle of muddy water to the press, he said it had been filled by one of the residents from a tap in their house. He said he would donate Rs2 million to a charity if Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif could show to the people that he was using the same water at his home. “The PML-N’s priorities are misplaced,” he said.

Ahsan said the problem of contamination of piped water was not restricted to any area. It was widespread, he said.

The senator said his party would soon raise the issue in the Provincial  Assembly.

Like potable water, he said easy access to health and education services was also not a priority for the PML-N government.

He said funds set aside for the construction of a 400-bed surgical tower at Mayo Hospital had been diverted to the Orange Line Metro Train project.

He also condemned the deployment of police contingents with members of the Sharif family.

He said the government had failed in making foolproof security arrangements on the occasion of Easter. He said the death of some of those injured in the Gulshan-i-Iqbal Park blast could have been avoided if hospitals were equipped with adequate facilities.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 3^rd, 2016.