PESHAWAR: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa president Pir Sabir Shah on Saturday said the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf had failed to live up to the expatiations of the people of the province and therefore, it was time that the provincial government admit its failure to deliver on promises.

He was speaking to reporters here at the Peshawar Press Club. PML-N leaders, including provincial general secretary Rehmat Salam Khattak, information secretary Nasir Khan Musazai, woman MPA Sobia Khan and Afzal Panyala, were also in attendance.

Sabir Shah said the presence of a large number of people at the PML-N workers convention in Peshawar showed the people at large wanted his party to stay in power in the centre to resolve the nation’s issues.

He said the PTI had been in power in the province for over a year but had miserably failed to fulfil election promises.

The PML-N leader said not a single mega development project had been initiated in the province since the PTI formed the provincial government more than a year ago.

He said the PML-N governments in Punjab and centre was focusing on public welfare and had initiated mega projects, especially for ending energy crisis.

Sabir Shah said the successive governments didn’t pay attention to power generation but the PML-N government had come up with a plan to generate at least 18,000 megawatts electricity in the next three years.

He said the federal government had planned to lay a railway line from Chinese border to Gwadar and from Peshawar to Karachi but some people had conspired against it. “We’ll foil all conspiracies against national development,” he said.

About the PTI and PAT sit-ins in Islamabad against the federal government, the PML-N leader said the two parties were bent on harming national interests to serve own ends and had paralysed the country’s economy over a month.

He urged PTI chief Imran Khan to ensure resolution of the people’s problems in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where, he said, the incidence of extortion, targeted killings and street crimes, were on the rise due to the inefficiency of his party’s government.

Sabir Shah said corruption rate was very high in the province and that the provincial health minister was sacked after he declined to award a project contract to PTI leader Jehangir Tareen. He said it was the duty of the provincial government to initiate public welfare projects otherwise billions of rupees worth of development funds would lapse.

The PML-N leader said all government departments in the province, especially education, police, revenue and health, were inefficient and that the government claims of reforming them were false.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2014