Holding the Punjab government equally responsible for the energy crisis in the country, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan said on Wednesday that provinces had been empowered to produce electricity after the 18th Amendment, but the Punjab government did nothing in this regard and Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif was accusing the Centre to hide his own incompetence.
He was addressing a press conference after a ceremony organised at the party’s central secretariat, where Mufti Abdul Qavi, who is the chairman of the Madaris Ahl-e-Sunnet and sajjada nasheen Khanqah Chishtiyan, joined PTI. PTI President Mukhdoom Javed Hashmi and Senior Vice President Shah Mehmood Qureshi were also present on the occasion.
Imran said the appointment of “Raja Rental” as the new prime minister of Pakistan was a matter of shame for the masses because President Asif Ali Zardari had appointed Raja Pervez Ashraf as the new PM to conceal his Rs 6 billion corruption. Imran said the PTI would not contest the election in the NA-151 constituency vacated after the disqualification of Yousaf Raza Gilani by the apex court.
Imran said the Punjab government had also failed to produce even a single megawatt of electricity during its four-year tenure. He said the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)-led government was as much responsible for the crisis as the federal government.
The PTI chief said that the creation of Pakistan had been pointless if the country failed to become an Islamic welfare state. He said the country had been founded on the idea of becoming an Islamic welfare state, adding that originally there was no concept of welfare states in Europe and that they had taken this concept from the Muslim world. “They formed all the Scandinavian states based on this concept. They call it Omar’s law there. We need to bring our culture back to our own land.”
Speaking on the issue of drone strikes, the PTI chief said that he was happy to see former US president Jimmy Carter’s criticism on drone attacks. “Carter openly criticised [US President Barack] Obama’s drone campaign and termed it as assassination. He said that it was not only a violation of international laws but also humanitarian laws.”
FAISALABAD RALLY: Separately, the PTI staged a rally in Faisalabad against electricity load shedding. Addressing the rally, the PTI chief asked the traders and youth to gear up for a long march towards Islamabad against the worst power crisis in the country’s history.
While criticising the Punjab government’s role, he asked PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif to tell the people how much money he had paid in electricity bills for his textile companies.
He said that Nawaz was fighting a “Noora Kushti” (fake wrestling) with the government because he was afraid of the PTI’s increasing popularity.
The PTI chief also harshly criticised President Asif Ali Zardari over his “bad” governance. Imran said the new prime minister, Raja Pervez Ashraf, had not been brought to serve the masses, rather he was brought to serve Zardari and protect his corruption.
Shahbaz, stop being a cry-baby over load shedding!
