Brownie points: Chief minister’s visit brings out the brooms

Circular Road cleaned overnight by municipal committee to appease Pervez Khattak.

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: The provincial government’s month-long cleanliness drive – which now seems to be in doldrums – witnessed uncharacteristic vigour ahead of the chief minister’s arrival in DI Khan on Sunday night.

Though the drive has been non-existent in the city since it was launched on September 10, a “fake campaign” was temporarily carried out to appease Chief Minister Pervez Khattak.

The entire municipal committee came out on the streets to clean Circular Road passing through the eastern side of the city – the route expected to be taken by Khattak. The exercise was not part of the month-long drive, but was completed in a hurry a night ahead of the chief executive’s visit.

Banners strategically put up to catch Khattak’s eye were also placed overnight. Passing through the now spotless Circular Road, one could see looming billboards. ‘If there is any government official found involved in corruption, report him to the government,’ read one such sign.

The half-a-kilometre stretch of road, however, covers less than one percent of the city’s area. And residents are not happy with the effort.

“We request the chief minister to come to DI Khan again and again and pass through all the roads. Only then can we expect the whole city to be cleaned from the dirt, smell and dust we breathe in every day,” said a local, Heshmath Khan. “He (Khattak) should come to Awanabad on his next visit and see the disgraceful conditions we live in,” said Khan while referring to the locality he resides in.

Situated behind Circular Road, the sanitary conditions of Awanabad Colony are deplorable, with knee-deep sewage water accumulated on narrow congested roads.

DI Khan Deputy Commissioner Waqar Khan and Assistant Commissioner Irfanullah Mehsud also took part in the cleaning exercise. On September 8, Revenue Minister Ali Amin Gandapur said in a public meeting the provincial government has provided the city’s municipal committee with a ‘modern’ machine which has the capacity to clean dirt equal to seventy tractors. The city, however, is yet to witness the power of this machine.



“When the chief minister takes a broom in his hand and shows us he really wants to clean the province, we will do it alongside him,” said Attaullah, another resident of the city.

Meanwhile, Khattak in his address on Sunday night vowed to eliminate corruption and urged people to contact relevant authorities if they find any official guilty of fraud.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 17^th, 2013.