KARACHI: PML-N Secretary General Ahsan Iqbal on Thursday condemned the alleged heavy-handedness of security personnel who tried to stop them from the symbolic inauguration of the Green Line Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project in Karachi and said the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government was taking credit for projects started during the previous Nawaz Sharif-led government.PML-N leaders, including Ahsan Iqbal, former governor Sindh Mohammed Zubair, and former finance minister Miftah Ismail, accompanied by several dozen party workers, arrived at the BRT station in Nazimabad No7 to inaugurate the project symbolically on Thursday.
A scuffle broke out when the police and Rangers personnel stopped them from reaching the site. Iqbal was hit by a baton while Zubair was also manhandled.
Later, while speaking to the media, Iqbal, Ahsan Iqbal said the PML-N government had inaugurated the Green Line BRT in 2016 and it was about to be completed in December 2018. “The delay was made intentionally in the project because it was a PML-N project and because of it, Karachi’s residents were forced to face immense hardships while travelling in rickety buses,” he said.
Iqbal alleged that the PML-N workers had been subjected to state-sponsored violence. “For this purpose, instead of using police, a security institution was used for policing purposes,” said Iqbal, without naming any institution.
“I have also been hit on my arms with sticks and I am happy that the blood of my other PML-N workers has spilled in the inauguration of a transport project that was started by their leader Nawaz Sharif,” he said.
Criticising the government, Iqbal said the government showed helplessness when dealing with the terrorists but used its entire force against unarmed political workers. Zubair said Prime Minister Imran Khan need not visit Karachi today (Friday) for the inauguration as the PML-N leaders who had launched the project had already inaugurated it.
Our Lahore correspondent adds: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) President and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif strongly condemned alleged torture on the party’s Secretary General Ahsan Iqbal and workers in Karachi and demanded an immediate investigation into the incident. In a statement issued here on Thursday, he said on the orders of Prime Minister Imran Niazi, Rangers in Karachi indiscriminately tortured party leaders and workers, including Secretary General Ahsan Iqbal.
He said that a high-level investigation should be carried out into the incident and those responsible should be identified and punished according to law. Shehbaz said that inhumane treatment of political and democratic workers was unacceptable.
Meanwhile, in his tweets, he said Zardari's statement about Nawaz Sharif was unfortunate. Mian Sahib's unwavering commitment to Pakistan cannot be questioned. The PML-N president said Zardari was aware why he had to go abroad. We should avoid such statements and work for the greater good of the country, Shehbaz Sharif said and added that the survey of the Transparency International confirmed how badly inflation was affecting the people. He said, on the other hand, Imran Khan claimed that Pakistan was the cheapest country in the world, which was a joke and showed that the rulers were totally indifferent to the facts.
He said that Imran Khan’s visit to KPK before the local bodies elections was a clear violation of the election code of conduct and directions of the Election Commission.
Road accident victims laid to rest
By our correspondent
MANSEHRA: The range officer and two other staffers of the Watershed Department were laid to rest in their respective graveyards in Balakot on Thursday.
A large number of people attended their funerals. Range Officer, Amjad Khan, and two other staffers were killed and three others sustained injuries when a jeep plunged into a ravine in the Jarad Nikian area of Kaghan valley on Wednesday night.
The official jeep was on its way back to Balakot from Kaghan valley when the driver lost control over the steering as a result of which it plunged into the ravine.
The Rescue 1122 teams along with the ambulances rushed to the spot and shifted the injured to the Civil Hospital where doctors pronounced the range officer and two other employees, Mohammad Ismail and Mohammad Riaz, dead.
The injured included Zafar Shah, Mohammad Pervez, stated to be the driver of the jeep, and Babu Kamran were referred to the Ayub Medical Complex Hospital, Abbottabad. According to police, the Watershed Department team had gone to Khan valley to check nurseries grown there under the Ten Billion Trees Tsunami programme.