Opposition leader calls PTI's 13-year rule 'injustice to province'

PESHAWAR:

Leader of the Opposition in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, Dr Ibadullah, has strongly criticized Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, terming his actions "a grave injustice to the province and particularly to the Pashtuns."

Speaking during a visit to Swabi, Dr Ibad said it was both unfortunate and shocking to witness the way the current chief minister is running provincial affairs. He alleged that during its 13-year rule, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) turned K-P, a backward province, into a "laboratory of experiments," claiming that decisions are being made elsewhere while the province is effectively being run by "Prisoner No 804."

He said chief ministers are installed and removed at will, questioning what kind of leadership the people of the province are being forced to witness. "The province has practically been turned into a joke," he remarked.

The opposition leader further alleged that despite the security situation, the chief minister spends time touring Lahore and Punjab, enjoying leisure trips and dining at public expense. "He should have been present in his ancestral district with the internally displaced persons (IDPs) during operations, where after sunset there is no effective writ of the government and people cannot even leave their homes," he said, adding that the writ of the government does not exist in the province and is instead exercised by "others."

Ibad claimed that while the people of K-P live in fear, the rulers remain busy in luxuries, enjoying official protocol even outside the province. He pointed out that in 2013 the province's debt stood at Rs150 billion, which has now surged to Rs1,000 billion. He questioned where the Rs9,000 billion allegedly provided by the federal government to the PTI-led administration had gone and who should be held accountable.

He said that for the first time during PTI's rule, he exposed the provincial budget as opposition leader, particularly highlighting the funds allocated for the merged tribal districts. He alleged that during his tenure, the PTI provincial government failed to construct even a single new school, college, university or basic health unit (BHU) across the province over a two-year period.