Metro bus: TI-Pakistan demands details of allegations

Asks Kaira, Imran to submit response within a week.

Transparency International Pakistan has sent a letter to Information and Broadcasting Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira, requesting details of the allegations he levelled against Punjab Chief Minister’s Shahbaz Sharif’s metro bus service project.

According to news reports, the minister has claimed that up to Rs97 billion has been spent on the project - almost three times the figure quoted by Shahbaz Sharif.

Kaira has also accused the Punjab government of buying sub-standard buses. He has reportedly said that on the inaugural day of the project, one of the buses rammed into a wall due to a fault in its gear box.



Also, the organisation sent a similar letter to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan.

The PTI leader is reported to have alleged that Shahbaz spent the entire budget for the province on a 27-kilometre road. He is also quoted in the letter as saying that between Rs80 and Rs90 billion was spent on the project as an election gimmick.

Both the information minister and the PTI leader have been asked to submit their replies within seven days.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 4^th, 2013.