ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: Federal Punjab information ministers Sunday castigated Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur over his recent statement, saying his outburst was reflective of his failure to run the provincial government.
Strongly reacting to the video statement, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar said: “Chief Minister Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s statement of shooting and dropping bodies is an admission of his failure that he is not capable of running the KP government.”
Hurling threats of attack on Islamabad and Punjab was tantamount to repeating the May 9 (incidents), said the minister adding that “those who hurt the public with rapid inflation are now worried why prices have come down from 32 per cent to 9.6pc.”
Atta Tarar said bullying, bullets and guns would not reduce inflation or unemployment. He said for the last 11 years, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa had been a hub for looting for the PTI.
The minister said no statement, no action and no attitude of the PTI provincial government was democratic, political and parliamentary. “He (CM) never said we will compete in the fields of education, health, employment and economic improvement,” Tarar added.
“Those who thwarted Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit with sit-ins now want to riot again on the occasion of SCO meeting,” he charged while referring to PTI’s sit-in back in 2014.
Separately, Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari said that after a flop show in Kahna, the PTI failed to invade Rawalpindi also.
Addressing a press conference in Lahore on Sunday, she said the situation was alarming in KP, with rampant kidnappings and the TTP setting properties ablaze. Educational institutions were being closed and the province’s debt had skyrocketed to Rs630 billion.
Azma asked KP CM Ali Amin Gandapur to stop playing the role of a “second-rated Maula Jatt” and instead focus on welfare of people in his province. She said in KP, the number of universities was being reduced from 32 to 12 due to shortage of funds. The number of non-functional schools had reached 543, and over 30,000 teaching positions remained vacant.
“These people are wasting their province’s resources on rallies and protests. In contrast, Punjab is increasing its number of universities, building new IT universities, providing meals to children, and hiring thousands of teachers,” Azma added.
She added that Gandapur wanted to incite violence between Pakhtuns and Punjabis. Why don’t they protest in KP? Protesting there would prevent the wastage of public resources, she added.
She said Gandapur talked about firing bullets in Punjab. “I want to tell him that bullets are already being fired in KP, where the Taliban roam freely. In the Gandapur area, Dera Ismael Khan, the son of a DSP was kidnapped and killed. TTP members are setting properties on fire yet no one is held accountable.”
The provincial minister also questioned the Balochistan government for how long the blood of innocent Punjabis would continue to be shed in that province. “The blood of Punjabis is not cheap. Whenever someone from another province comes to Punjab, we welcome and protect them with open arms. Sadly, terrorism has increased in Balochistan. Together, we will defeat the conspiracy to pit Punjabis and Baloch against each other,” she added.