CHITRAL, Dec 19: The leaders of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chitral have criticized former MNA Abdul Akbar Chitrali’s allegations against the party and his bid to twist the facts about the performance of the provincial government.
[caption id="attachment_6466" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Chitral: Local PPP leaders addressing a press conference.--GH Farooqui"]
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Addressing a press conference here, Mohammad Hakim Advocate, the PPP Chitral’s general secretary, Bashir Ahmad, political secretary to provincial minister for population welfare Saleem Khan, Burhan Shah Advocate, Iqbal Hayat, president PYO, and others said during the talk-show the former MNA used very indecent language and misbehaved with the provincial minister which gave a very bad impression of Chitral’s culture. They said Lowari tunnel was started by the PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and worked on the project was stopped by military dictator Ziaul Haq in the 1970s. Though the project was completed by former president Pervez Musharraf, the tunnel was the brainchild of Mr Bhutto, they added. However, they claimed that the PPP had done something good by changing the design of the tunnel from rail to road tunnel, increasing its cost from Rs8 to Rs18 billion. It is a fact that work remained suspended on Lowari tunnel for four years but that was due to the design change and other issues. Now work has been restarted at the site and the project will be completed by 2015.
They said that Abdul Akbar claimed that he had given employment to 8,000 youth of Chitral when he was the MNA, which was totally wrong. If he can prove his claim of appointing such a big number of youth, the PPP minister would design from the post, they challenged. They claimed that Saleem Khan had given employment to 1,500 people from across Chitral without any discrimination. They rejected Abdul Akbar’s allegation of getting bribe in the appointment process by Saleem Khan. They said that Abdul Akbar also issued a misleading statement that the Chitral bypass project had been launched by the MMA government. There was nothing in MMA government for the bypass and it is the present provincial government which allocated 720 million for it. They said that cutting of forest was started during the MMA government but former MNA Abdul Akbar remained silent at that time because of his personal interests. They said that the first phase of Lowari tunnel was completed by Pervez Musharraf but Abdul Akbar was trying to get credit for the project. They said that PPP leaders had already requested the federal interior and communication ministers for opening of Lowari tunnel four hours daily.]]>
There is no doubt that present public representatives have completely failed to deliver as their predecessor MMA. The difference between the two is that present leaders filled their pockets and gave nothing to the public in terms of development. The ex-MMA leaders neither did something for themselves (substantially) nor for the district. Corruption is on its peak, jobs are being sold as used to be under previous PPP governments. Now these so-called leaders (political businessmen) have failed and see their doomsday ahead and have resorted to ugly means for survival. The people of Chitral do not believe in sectarianism and want the leaders do something for the development of Chitral. People are suffering at the hands of these leaders, no electricity, high level corruption, denial of health facilities, damaged or nonexistent roads. We want somebody honest and dedicated and having the capacity/ability to solve our problems. I would like to give one example; Rural Health Center (RHC) Koghuzi was constructed with millions of rupees for the people of KOH area. That was never provided with staff and there is not a single doctor there for many years. Our leaders are issuing long statements criticizing each other but they cannot see the sufferings of the people under their nose.
I am surprised why some people criticize Saleem Khan for no cogent reasons. Is he the sole responsible for the sectarian based politics all along in the history of Chitral. The Jamaat-e-Islami and JUI had gotten a good chance in 2002 to work for elimination of the scourge of sectarian prejudice in Chitral and win the sympathies of the Ismaili votes but they failed to do so. Since 2008 elections, when Saleem Khan won the polls and managed to get the slot of minister for population welfare through his sheer hard work and public relations, some quarters have gone berserk in levelling all sorts of dirty allegations against him. Even he was accused of providing Kalashinkovs to the people of Garam Chashma. Come on Chitralis, doff off all these rubish things you are living in the 21st century. Saleem Khan got the votes from Arandu to Gobor in Garam Chashma because of his work as a PPP activists. He is the only man who can bring unity to both the communities. The Jamaat and JUI people are considering him as a threat to their political survival and are levelling allegations against him. We should understand that. And we should also understand that in the next elections, people will be voting for candidates based on their performance and clarity of vision, irrespective of their sectarian slogans or affiliations.
Salim Khan should give up and go home in an honourable manner as he miserably failed to deliver during his five years tenure. People had lots of expectations from him but he left behind all super stars of corruption in Chitral. I just got the opportunity to see his under-construction bungalow at Sin Lasht. The minister concerned could not build a small house before entering politics but now he is the owner of a grand house perhaps one of the finest houses in Chitral. He has also reportedly purchased a huge chunk of land in Islamabad, where he plans a housing society. The anti-corruption department must wake up and take action. This so-called anti-corruption department should initiate investigation into the embezzlement and the wealth he and other politicians have accumulated after joining politics. Otherwise this department will be equally blamed in facilitating the corrupt.