PTI’s recent ‘victories’ in Chitral

By Muhammad Amin (Garam Chashma)

Although people of Chitral have not shown any good courtesy with respect to Pakistan Tehrik Insaf in both the general elections of 2013 and 2018, as the electorates did not send any legislature to the national and provincial assemblies belonging to PTI. But despite of the defeats of PTI candidates in these elections, Imran Khan and his party did not adopt any revenging policy towards Chitral, but instead rewarded with a reserved seats for women and then currently minority seat for provincial assembly. This shows Imran Khan deep love for the people of Chitral in view of its remoteness and peaceful environment.
In the general elections of 2018 PTI won sweeping majority in the Provincial Assembly of KPK and was able to form a coalition government at the center, as may be called a marriage of convenience .Chitral became one of the few constituencies in the province where PTI candidates got defeated for the second consecutive terms. There may be many reasons behind this loss, but main reasons were making coalition among the two religious-political parties of Jamiat Islami and Jamiat Ulema Islam (through MMA) , lack of proper outreach among the masses, existing traditional mindset, use of money and disseminations of negative propaganda by adversary party etc.As both the religious political parties have very strong political basis and representation in the district, but PTI candidates for the NA and PA seats gave tough competition.
The post election scenario has changed the traditional mind set of the people of Chitral and helped the party workers in the district to mobilize increasing party membership through shamoliyati programmes.In addition the people of Chitral have also gradually began to realize Imran Khan vision towards establishing the State of Madina, formed by the last Messenger of God, the Glorified, Muhammad (p.b.u.h), as the last ray of hope. The people of Chitral like other parts of the country also have seemed fed up with the jin of corruption, nepotism and injustices. Due to the Shamuliyati Programmes many important and active political workers (mentioned may be made of Sartaj Ahmad and Muhammad Hussain ) from other parties have already joined PTI and many more will join in the future and will lead to PTI stability in the district.
In a recent such programme held in Garamchashma, many VC representatives joined PTI under the leadership of the UC Nazim Lotkoh along with many others in the presence of party MPA and other stalwards.In the joining programme majority of the people were demanding NAB proceedings over embezzlement of public fund during the tenure of Ex.MPA Salim Khan from 2008 to 2018, with staunch action.MPA Mr.Wazir Zada and other party leadership assured them of their full support in this matter. Corruption has been the main hurdle in the path of sustainable development in Chitral. Every years millions of development fund get embezzled in the hands of government contractors through the connivance of relevant departments and their political patrons. This can be evidenced with overnight well off of these corrupt elements with luxurious life style and bank balance. As a result more than 30% is spent on the projects or schemes in ideal cases. As the number one agenda of PTI is root out corruption i.e., recovery of looted money and giving exemplary punishment to the corrupts and their abettor, the people of Chitral also expect this from the PTI government. There must be an across the board accountability against those who have tremendously increased their assets in a short period of time beyond the imagination of an ordinary citizen. If we want a stable and respected sovereign state then there should be a zero tolerance against corrupt practices. It is also shocking to know that NAB officials come to Chitral, hold formal meeting with the accused but so far not a single case has been filed against the corrupt people in Chitral, which in return tarnish the image of the institution due to many questions raise among the people. Whether these people are strong or some backdoor bargains are held behind the scene?
PTI has initiated the process of recovering embezzlement of public fund through NAB and other state organs and many big fish have already been haunted and many will be done in the coming days. Only jailing and making comfortable bargains with the corrupt elements is not the practicable solution to the chronic issue of Pakistan, but the need is reforming NAB laws and give exemplary examples to the corrupt element to minimize its recurrence .Such laws are already existed in our neighbours as in China, Saudi Arabia and Iran, which helped to reduce corruption at bearing level.
No society can prosper without a sound justice system, where everybody stands equal in the eyes of the law irrespective of birth, creed and wealth. But in our society law always protects the “haves“ and punishes the “haves not“As Ali Ibni Abi Talib (A.S) has said that a society based on kufr can survive but one without justice cannot survive. This can be done by reforms in police departments and making them independent of political pressure and interference plus appointment and promotion of personnel purely on merit. The government of KPK has already made police as independent and other provinces also require the same mesasure.It is also fundamental to provide speedy justice to the people by increasing the number of judicial staff and reforming in the outdated laws, framed during the British India.
As Chitral has been a deprived area in sharing the development fund and other incentives from different governments in different eras, now it is expected that the PTI government will compensate some of the injustice done to the people of Chitral and make it a corruption free area by recovering looted wealth of the state. The people of Chitral also have right of access to the basic health and quality education facilities as par with other areas of Pakistan.