PTI terms Pildat survey a farce

The Newspaper's Staff Reporter Published September 4, 2014

LAHORE: Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly Mahmoodur Rashid has challenged the authenticity of a survey report for the political popularity recently released by a non-government organisation.

The report had been released by the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (Pildat) on the basis of an opinion poll conducted between July 16 and Aug 6, which declared the performance of the Punjab chief minister as the best among the four CMs.

Know more: Punjab leads other provinces in terms of good governance

“The report is a failed effort to save the skin of Shahbaz, the man facing criminal and murder cases,” said Rashid here on Wednesday.

He said Shahbaz was being named in the Model Town incident during the period the survey was conducted and hatred against the Punjab government was at its peak. How any person could talk in favour of such a person and appreciate his governance during those days, he questioned?

The PTI leader quoted reports about various provincial departments, including education, health and home, indicating poor performance of the government in all these sectors.

He claimed that in August this year a secret report presented to the chief minister revealed that the crime rate had risen over 110 per cent while 91,000 cases were never registered, corruption and torture was rampant in police stations, and fake encounters were at their peak.

Mr Rashid claimed the report was on record and could be seen by anyone.

He said the Punjab government had failed to hold local body elections in the last six years, depriving the people of their basic constitutional right to franchise.

He alleged that Punjab presented the worst example of state-sponsored terrorism as false cases were being registered against political rivals.

The PTI leader said the Punjab government violated Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution by placing containers and arresting innocent citizens.

He claimed that Rs80 billion were lost in the Ramazan package as Rs30 million were being paid daily as interest on the loans taken by the Punjab government in the name of the food department.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2014

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Jamsher Murad Kholhi

Sep 04, 2014 11:04am

I stopped reading after I read the following "The report had been released by the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (Pildat)"

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Ameed

Sep 04, 2014 12:22pm

" Mr Rashid claimed the report was on record and could be seen by anyone." And where is the report? Why do everyone refers to a white elephant that can't be found? And why isn't there a no confidence vote in the PA against Shahbaz? Learn the system before you plan to change it.

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syed wasim haider

Sep 04, 2014 02:08pm

These surveys are do not co-relate with the ground realities. PML-N must work hard with honesty and sincerity if they want to complete their 5 years tenure. You were not given mandate to enjoy for 5 years. I think the tenure must be reduced to 4 years and after completion of each year , the ruling parties must give their performance report in parliament and TV in front of general audience.

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haris

Sep 04, 2014 02:57pm

@Ameed I think you should ask Pildat why the report has not been public. And about no-confidence vote scenario, the opposition has to be very precise and decisive in launching any kind of movements in the assembly against the leader of the house. They must counter all the factors and scenarios, because Shahbaz Sharif would become more powerful and in fact less challenge able if he gets less votes in no-confidence voting.

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Azad Khial

Sep 05, 2014 03:11am

Does the PTI actually believe anything anyone says unless it suits them. Survey after survey before last years election indicated PTI was not going to win anywhere close to the simple majority they expected. But they ignored the surveys in favour of their own tsunami rhetoric. Had they believed the evidence we may not have been in this mess in the first place.

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