KP govt failed on all fronts, says Muqam

BATKHELA: Provincial president of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Amir Muqam said on Saturday that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led government damaged Khyber Pakhtunkhwa colossally.

Talking to The News after inquiring after the health of former parliamentarian Muhammad Khan here, he said that the PTI-led government turned the provincial capital into ruins.

He said that the slogan of change was political ploy and nothing more. Muqam said that Imran Khan ignored the genuine party workers in the award of party tickets for Senate election and instead awarded the tickets to capitalists and businessmen like Khayal Zaman and Ayub Afridi who, he alleged, had offshore companies and business and were not the PTI activists.

Muqam said that Imran Khan had no principles and ideology, adding the PTI supported the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) candidate for deputy chairman Senate slot in the election to the Upper House of the Parliament.

“Imran Khan criticises PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari at every forum but directed his party’s lawmakers to stamp on arrow instead of bat,” he said in a reference to the PPP

election symbol of arrow and PTI’s bat.

The PML-N leader said that Imran Khan was claiming to stage a big show in Lahore. “I challenge him to hold a gathering of Lahories only instead of bringing PTI supporters from other provinces. I am more than confident that his Lahore public meeting would be a big failure if he gathered Lahories only in the public meeting,” he went on to say.

He claimed that PTI chief was pressing his party lawmakers from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to bring people to the party’s Lahore public meeting to make it a big show.

The PML-N leader asked the PTI chief to stop using the KP resources for arranging his party public meetings.

He said the PTI-led provincial government overburdened the province with billions of rupees foreign loans and disappointed the people of the province.

He urged the people to hold the PTI accountable for its false pledges and failure to honour its commitments by not voting for the party in the upcoming general election.

Muqam said the popularity of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was increasing. He said only Nawaz Sharif and PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif had the ability to steer the country out of the prevailing crises, adding only the PML-N had carried out a number mega uplift projects in the country.

He said removing Nawaz Sharif as party head would not affect his popularity, status and importance in the party and the country’s politics.

“The participation of a huge number of people in the previous public meeting of PML-N in Swat that was addressed by Nawaz Sharif is the most recent example of popularity of the former three-time prime minister,” he added.

He welcomed the withdrawal of the unnecessary security to politicians and government officers but also expressed reservations over the withdrawal of security from the people who have been attacked by militants in the past and still under threat of being attacked.

“Who will be responsible if the people who have genuine security risks harmed in an attack by them,” he asked.

Muqam said the PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif’s April 28 public meeting in Shergarh would be a big power show of the party.