GHOTKI – Prime Minister Imran Khan Saturday reiterated his government’sresolve not to forgive the leadership of the Pakistan Muslim League-N andPakistan Peoples Party unless they pay back the looted public money.
“I challenge you today. Do whatever you want to do, get united or anythingelse. We will not leave you. This nation will not pardon you. You have onlyone way out – pay back public money, then we will leave you,” the primeminister remarked addressing a public gathering here in the industrial cityof Sindh province.
Besides huge number of people, the event was attended by Foreign MinisterShah Mahmood Qureshi, Sindh Governor Imran Ismail, leadership of GrandDemocratic Alliance including Zulfiqar Mirza and Arbab Ghulam Rahim, andMPA Ali Gohar Mahar.
Referring to the train march by the PPP Chairman Bilwal Bhutto, the primeminister said the PTI had staged sit-in to demand fair election, not toconceal its corruption.
He said the PPP had to offer Rs 2,000 per head to the people to join theirtrain march because it was not meant for people’s benefit rather to covertheir own corruption.
The prime minister said whenever the government launched accountability,the opposition started propaganda of threat to democracy. It was notdemocracy but corruption under threat, he added.
He said in the past, both Sharif and Zardari were labeling each other ascorrupt but now they were getting united against the government.
The prime minister told the gathering that during last 10 years Sindhgovernment got Rs 234 billion as gas royalty but the living condition ofthe people in Ghotki was yet unchanged which produced 70 percent of gas.
The royalties should be first spent on the areas producing naturalresources, he added.
He said the money supposed to be spent on people, went to fake accounts.He said due to corruption, country’s debt had swelled from Rs 6,000 billionto Rs 30,000 billion within ten years.
Lauding the leadership of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, theprime minister said during his 17 years rule, he had surged the per capitaincome of Malaysia from around $1500 to $9,000. But the corrupt leadershipwhich replaced him put the country again under debt.
Similarly, he said Pakistan once had been the fastest growing nation inAsia and even South Korea had adopted Pakistan’s development model but nowit (Pakistan) was under record burden of debt. The country had to pay Rs 6billion a day as mark-up of the loans.
He said being home to Karachi, the country’s financial capital, most gasreserves and fertile land, Sindh should have been the most developedprovince.Contrarily, the interior Sindh was the poorest area in Pakistan, just dueto corruption.
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The prime minister said he had always seen Sindh in deteriorating conditionand it was well known fact as where the province’s budget had gone.
He assured the gathering of his frequent visits to Sindh to uplift it atpar with other areas.
He said his government had launched a comprehensive poverty alleviationprogram benefiting from Chinese experiences. Insaf Sehat Cards provinghealth insurance cover of Rs 720,000 per family were being distributed. Theprograms for women empowerment, interest-free loans and youth employmentwere also coming up, he added.
The prime minister also committed to end the practice of using police tovictimize the political opponents in Sindh.
Addressing the gathering, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said theparties which had been symbol of federation in the past were now missingfrom Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Karachi.
He said only PTI and MQM were representing Karachi, not the PPP that hadnow been shrunk to interior Sindh.
He said PPP had been ruling Sindh from 2008 to 2018 but the livingstandard of the people remained unchanged which required a second thoughtby the people to find a new course.
He said he had decided to join the PTI just to make Naya Pakistan.Starting from KP, the PTI had made its way to Punjab by ending the 30-yearrule of thePML-N, putting all notions of analysts to rest.
He said the PTI had also defeated the PPP in its strongholds includingBadin and Larkana.
Addressing the leadership of GDA, he said it was time to take decisions andform joint strategies as he foresaw a great political change in Sindh innext elections owing to PPP’s failure to deliver.
He hoped that the PTI and its allies would form new government in Sindh.
