Multan rally: Ruling party glossing over education, health: Imran

Censures govt for building expensive motorways and other mega projects

MULTAN:

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan mounted a blistering attack on the ruling party for its extravagant spending on motorways and other mega projects at the cost of the health and education sectors.

“The nation is getting poorer by the day. People are suffering from poor health facilities and lack of clean drinking water. People need better health facilities not a metro project worth Rs60 billion,” he told a rally in Multan’s Katchehry sports ground on Friday.

The PTI chief said he envisions a country where anyone with grievances could stage a protest outside the Prime Minister House. He also cited the instance of how teachers and officials from different departments of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) managed to broker a deal between the K-P government and the aggrieved officials after a two-month long sit-in outside his house in Bani Gala.

“Can anyone stage a sit-in outside Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s house?” he asked the political gathering.

Urging the people of Multan to vote for his party’s candidate, Imran said, “You need to tell the PML-N that they have not fulfilled their promises.” “The people of Multan should rise up for their rights.”

Calling the upcoming by-election a contest between two ideologies, the PTI chief said: “The voters of Multan should exercise their right to expose the real face of the PML-N.”

He asked his party men in the city of saints: “People of Multan! Are you getting free treatment, education and justice?” He pointed out that the decisions of Multan should be made by the people of Multan instead of Lahore according to their needs and priorities.

According to Imran, 2015 is the year of a new Pakistan, citing the party’s success in the long struggle to get the government to form a judicial commission.

In the coming days, he said, other election tribunal decisions will remove all doubt that the 2013 general election was rigged. “I congratulate you all in advance,” he noted.

The PTI chief said his struggle is for cause of true democracy in Pakistan. Since 1970, two political groupings have been in power one after the other. As a result, people are suffering from corruption and load-shedding. “Pakistan could not make progress due to certain opportunistic elements who are ruling and serving their personal interests, he added.

Talking about establishing the constituency of peace in Karachi, he said, “To create peace in Karachi, police need to be independent. Our police is helpless due to political interference.” In K-P, however, the police is independent and free of political interference due to which crime rate has fallen by 60 per cent.

Another PTI leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi reminded people that his party had started the process of accountability by organising sit-ins and protests. “21st May will be the day of sending these people to their homes,” he added.

He said the nation is disappointed with the PPP and the PML-N, adding that people crave change.

Another PTI leader, Asad Umar, said the PML-N led government was neglecting the needs of the people.


Published in The Express Tribune, May 16^th, 2015.