ISLAMABAD:
Documented facts and figures show that PTI chief Imran Khan was
presenting a wrong picture before the media on Sunday and not only was
it untrue that any project or budget of any province had been
transferred to Punjab but as a matter of fact, all provinces have a
number of mega development projects whereas the Punjab has very few
projects compared to other province because of unknown reasons.
Federal
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar told The News that all provinces will get
their share as agreed to by all in the National Finance Commission (NFC)
and transferring the share of any small province to the Punjab was
completely out of question.
He said no project of any
small province had been transferred to the Punjab and if anything like
that was being done proof should be presented before the nation.It is
important to mention that after failing to prove any allegation, Imran
Khan and some party members have now started spreading provincialism to
achieve their objectives. Imran Khan and some of his party members
having a particular agenda clearly want to topple the democratically
elected government and they have used everything for this from the
religion card to the blasphemy card but when the nation identified them
they came up with a 1971-like plan and started fueling provincialism and
that too on the basis of complete lies.
Documented
facts and figures establish that in the upcoming budget, the federal
government plans big development projects in all provinces but the
Punjab will have small share in overall projects. The provinces will get
the lion’s share of 57.15% of total revenues in addition to many grants
and royalties and gas surcharges etc. Besides this, in all sectors,
three provinces Sindh, KPK and Balochistan, will get the lion’s share
whereas projects in Punjab would be less than the projects in other
provinces as per the so far planned budget proposals of the federal
government.
In the water sector, Imran Khan wrongly said
that the biggest project of Diamer-Bhasha Dam, which will store 4.7 MAF
of water and generate electricity of 4,500 MW, was in the Punjab. Imran
needs to change his team. Rs10 billion and Rs15 billion have been
reserved for the land acquisition and land acquisition processes.
Imran
Khan’s facts were terribly wrong as according to official documents
water projects in Balochistan are the second most important focus of
water sector investments comprising construction of delayed action dams,
flood dispersal structures, canals and small storage dams. Major focus
is on completing the long-delayed projects such as Katchi Canal (Dera
Bugti and Nasirabad), Naulong Storage Dam (Jhal Magsi), Extension of Pat
Feeder Canal to Dera Bugti and Shadi Kaur Dam (Gwadar). None is in
Punjab but Imran believes so. He may be right but the nation will wait
for any evidences from his side like it is waiting regarding many other
allegations like Geo rigged polls, Umar Cheema famous tweet was about
etc etc.
In Sindh, the projects of Rainee Canal (Ghotki
and Sukkur), extension of Right Bank Outfall Drain from Sehwan to sea
will be undertaken. In Punjab Ghabir Dam (Chakwal) and in AJK completion
of raising Mangla Dam will be executed. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Palal,
Kundal and Sanam Dams (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) and in FATA, Kurram Tangi Dam
(North Waziristan), GomalZam Dam (South Waziristan) will be undertaken.
Besides,
numerous schemes of lining of water-courses will be undertaken in
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Punjab to reduce water wastage together
with flood protection and drainage schemes all over the country.
Moreover, new water sector projects are being initiated which include a
series of small dams across Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including
Basool Dam in Ormara and Makhi Frash Link Canal in Thar and
Channelization of Nullah Deg in Punjab.
This detail of
developmental projects in water sector proves that the share of Punjab
is minimum and the great number of projects is in small provinces. So at
least to the extent of water related projects the planning of Imran
Khan to spread provincialism failed.
In power sector,
during the current year a sum of Rs.205 billion will be invested. The
projects include Neelum-Jhelum Hydro Power Project (969 MW),
Diamer-Bhasha Dam and Hydropower Project (4500 MW), Tarbela Fourth
Extension Project (1410 MW), Thar Coal Gasification Project (100 MW),
Chashma Civil Nuclear Power project (600 MW), two Karachi Nuclear
Coastal Power Projects (2200 MW) with Chinese assistance, Keyal Khawar
Hydro Power Project (122 MW), Allai Khawar Hydro Power Project (122 MW),
Combined Cycle Power Projects at Nandipur (425 MW) and Chichoki Malian
(525MW), Refurbishment and Up-gradation of Generation Units of Mangla
Power Station, Up-gradation of Guddu Power Project (747 MW gas-based),
conversion of oil based power projects to coal at Muzaffargarh and
Jamshoro (3,120 MW), transmission network to evacuate power from Wind
Power Projects in Jhimpir and Gharo, interconnection of Chashma Nuclear
III and IV, interconnection of Thar Coal based Engro (1200 MW) and
massive allocations to improve transmission lines, grid stations and
distribution systems.
We have expanded unusual efforts to
make the dream of Dasu Hydropower Project a reality. The World Bank
will soon be approving $700million for financing this critical project
that will add more than 4500 MW of power after completion. We are
designing innovative ways to mobilize the requisite finances for
constructing this project within the shortest possible time.
If
Imran has any reasoning left, except a project in Chakwal, majority of
mega projects are in other provinces. Regarding highways, the premier
project that would transform the south-north corridor linking Sindh to
up-country through a rapid transit mode is the 959km Karachi-Lahore
motorway project for which Rs25 billion has been allocated for land
acquisition this year and Rs30 billion in the next year’s development
budget. Any person with normal intellect would tell that this historic
project will link Sindh with the rest of Pakistan through an
international standard motorway. Construction work on 276 KM Lahore to
Khanewal Section, 387 KM Multan to Sukkur Section, 296 KM Sukkur to
Hyderabad Section and 136 KM Hyderabad to Karachi Section will start
soon and will be undertaken on public-private partnership basis.
In
addition to all this, work on the remaining portions of 892 KM
Gwadar-Ratodero Motorway has been expedited and works on 200 km long
Gwadar-Turbat-Hoshab section have been prioritized by meeting all its
financial requirements. For northern connectivity, work on construction
of 460 km Raikot-Havelian-Islamabad Section of the corridor will also be
starting as well as for widening of the Khunjrab-Raikot Section of the
Karakorum Highway. All this is mere shame for the whole PTI leadership
and what they said on Sunday could never be stated by a national
political party even if there were establishment orders. Senior
politicians from almost all circles no openly say that Imran Khan should
now start trying to come out of the web of this clique and not be
blackmailed by them anymore.
There is one road project in
the Punjab. There are allocations for a number of bridges and tunnels to
open up unconnected areas. These include accelerated completion of
Lowari-Tunnel, Lipa Tunnel in Lipa Valley, a bridge on Chenab River near
Sultan Bahoo, Baba Farid Bridge near Pakpattan, Syedwala Bridge on
River Ravi near Nankana Sahib and a bridge on Indus River to connect N5
and N55. Major project is Lowari Tunnel which will make Imran design’s
to topple a democratically elected government failed.
Further,
in order to address the problem of urban congestion, allocations have
been made in the current budget for the Peshawar Northern-Bypass,
Karachi Northern Bypass, Lyari Expressway, dualization of Sukkur Bypass,
and Lahore Eastern Bypass. Moreover Ratodero, Dadu-Sehwan Road and
Rakhi-Gaj-Bewala East-West road are also being constructed to improve
connectivity.
Again this proves Imran Khan and those in
his party who have a particular agenda are wrong. They now want to
spread provincialism after failing to directly take the democratically
elected government using religious and blasphemy cards. This is an
extensive programme in the highways sector comprising 74 projects of
motorways, highways, bridges, tunnels, and regional roads and a sum of
about Rs.113 billion has been kept in the budget for this purpose. Major
is Lowari Tunnel which to the bad luck of Imran Khan is not part of the
Punjab. Imran now has become notorious for leveling wrong allegations
against those who expose his misdeeds or wrongdoings.
In
railways sector, allocations have been made for rehabilitation of track
from Karachi to Khanpur and Khanpur to Lodhran. Allocations have also
been made to strengthen and rehabilitate 159 weak railway bridges.
These
measures will improve speed and reduce travel time. Similarly, urban
railway is being introduced initially in Karachi and Lahore. Allocations
have been made in the federal budget to revive the Karachi Circular
Railway while the Government of Punjab has planned to introduce a modern
metro rail in Lahore.
A path-breaking project of
Islamabad-Murree-Muzaffarabad Rail Link is being initiated and a new
company with the name of Kashmir Railways is being established to
construct and manage this exceptional project in the scenic area of
Galyat and Kashmir. Simply because of metro bus project or metro train
project who one can set basis for spreading hatred and provincialism?
Now only Imran Khan can tell the people or readers can decides on their
own whether these are projects for the Punjab only or there are more
number of projects for other provinces and less for the Punjab.
