‘Bloody revolution’ if public projects are halted: CM

Unveils first set of rolling stock, vows to accept court decision

LAHORE: There will be a bloody revolution if public projects are halted, warned Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif while addressing the unveiling ceremony of the first set of rolling stock of Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT) on Sunday.

The chief minister said the court should announce its pending verdict on the OLMT and the Punjab government would accept its decision wholeheartedly.

Shehbaz inaugurates Orange Line, urges Lahore to look out for 'political vultures'

“I am unable to compensate for losses that the metro train project has incurred in nearly two years of litigation. It has put a public welfare project on hold at 11 sites,” he said.

The chief minister said that earlier the opposition stirred propaganda against the Lahore Metro Bus and now they were criticising the country’s first metro train project because they did not know the importance of an efficient and safe public transport system. “The opposition alleged that the government had spent Rs70 billion on Lahore Metro Bus, whereas they could not prove in the court that we spent even Rs35 billion.” He underscored that everywhere in the world the public transport system was subsidised and not for profit.



Shehbaz said Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan was criticising his government for mass transit projects while even after four years he (Khan) had failed to lay a single brick of the Peshawar Metro Bus project announced in the beginning of PTI rule in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. He stressed that if the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had its government in K-P, not only the Peshawar Metro Bus project would have been completed but similar projects would have been initiated in Abbottabad, Kohat, Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan.



He said Chinese President Xi Jinping had told him and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in a meeting that the metro train was a gift for the people of Lahore and Punjab from China. The project comes through an easy 20-year instalment plan with a grace period of seven years. It meant Pakistan would not have to pay anything for the first seven years, he maintained.

He also criticised the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and said those who wasted billions of rupees in the name of rental power plants are also criticising the metro train project.

The chief minister said the OLMT project would provide a modern, safe, swift and affordable transport facility to commuters. As many as 250,000 passengers will travel on metro train every day. The train will run at 80 kilometres per hour and cover a distance of 27km from Darogawala to Thokar Niaz Baig in 45 minutes. “Despite conspiracies against development, the journey of progress and prosperity will continue.”

Shehbaz said it was the first project of its kind in the history of Pakistan. Eyes of Lahore’s residents and the rest of Pakistan were on the OLMT but only a handful of politicians had attempted to stop this mega project, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 9^th, 2017.