NA-4 residents happy, say by-polls help check performance of govt. PHOTO: FILE
The PTI led provincial government, according to the local people of the constituency, had all but forgotten the development projects it had announced for the area.
Several developmental works were in the pipeline in NA-4 constituency. But even after more than four years of the current government, the projects have not been started, they said.
Suddenly, as if by a shock of falling popularity, the government moved into action with the announcement of by-polls in the constituency.
Though violating the code of conduct of Election Commission of Pakistan, both PML-N in the centre and PTI in the province were announcing new projects and getting work on the older ones started.
As per ECP rules, appeasing public before polls was a no-no.
But public doesn’t have any concerns with the code of conduct, they are just happy for the works carried out in their areas. One of the mega projects approved by the PML-N in NA-4 was installation of piped-gas supply.
The federal government through direct funds from the PMs office has approved Rs250 million for supply of gas to the NA-4 constituency. Notification in this regard was issued in July this year, a copy of which was available with The Express Tribune.
The document states that the prime minister has ordered release of Rs250 million out of Rs563 million on account of direct funding.
“Remaining amount of Rs313 million will be released in the next financial year [for the gas supply to NA-4],” the notification read. The work on supply of gas to the constituency was inaugurated by Adviser to Prime Minister Amir Muqam on July 16.
“It doesn’t matter who wins the elections, but the supply of gas was a dream come true after the by-elections announcement, otherwise it wouldn’t be possible,” a local of Jamil Chowk, Naqeeb Ahmad told The Express Tribune.
Similarly, there was scarcity of water in various villages of the constituency and the issue was fixed after installation of solar-powered tube wells by the provincial government at a cost of more than Rs10 million.
Moreover, the provincial government has also approved solarisation of mosques in the said constituency. Another resident of Scheme Chowk, Murad Ali, said that the by-elections seems to be test case for all the major political parties.
“It’s a performance test for all the major parties before the general elections to be held in 2018,” Ali said, adding, all the political parties were sleeping before announcements of the by-elections in the said constituency.
By-elections in NA-4 will be held on October 26, on the seat that had fallen vacant after the demise of PTI’s MNA Gulzar Khan.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 26th, 2017.
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