DERA MURAD JAMALI: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has demanded a reduction in fuel prices and electricity tariff, withdrawal of new taxes, rehabilitation of national institutions instead of privatising them, payment of salary to Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) employees and bringing back the money stashed abroad.
“I promise to the people of Balochistan that they will get justice and their rights will be respected when we come to power. They were denied justice which created a sense of deprivation,” he said while addressing a large public meeting at the football ground here on Sunday.
He said that if he failed to fulfil the pledge, people would be justified in protesting against him and he would not order firing or launch a military operation against them.
He said a PTI government would spend the resources of the province on the development and prosperity of its people who were denied their rights.
He warned that his party would take to the streets across the country if his demands were not met by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
PTI chief promises justice and rights to people of Balochistan
Mr Khan criticised the government’s plan to privatise national institutions, including Pakistan International Airlines, the PSM, the Water and Power Development Authority and the railways.
He said the government had failed to set the organisations on the right course and make them profitable.
“Our steel mill has been closed for two years but that of the Sharif family is running without any hurdle in Jeddah,” he said.
He said the government should abandon the plan to privatise the institutions and should make them profitable after changing their management and appointing professionals to do the job, as the PTI had done in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
He said the five months’ salary not paid to PSM employees should be paid immediately because their families were facing great hardship.
The PTI chief demanded that the prices of petrol and kerosene should be reduced by Rs5 per litre and of diesel by Rs20 in view of oil rates going down in the international market.
He said the three new taxes on electricity should be withdrawn, which would cause a drop in tariff by Rs3 per unit. He also demanded withdrawal of the infrastructure development tax on gas.
Mr Khan said the prime minister could stop tax theft of Rs700 billion by removing corrupt officials of the Federal Board of Revenue, taking steps to curb smuggling and reducing the levies.
The PTI chairman urged Prime Minister Sharif to declare his and his family’s assets and bring back his money kept abroad.
He quoted Finance Minister Ishaq Dar as saying that $200bn of Pakistan was lying aboard.
“Poverty cannot end without eliminating corruption,” Mr Khan said.
He said the government had taken Rs500bn loan in two and a half years but was not allocating funds for important development projects. There are no funds for completing the Kachhi canal in Balochistan but money is being spent on the Metro and Orange Line projects “for getting kickbacks”.
He said the Kachhi canal could help cultivate thousands of acres and create jobs for the people of the area. Mr Khan said the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) had provided a great opportunity to bring the small provinces closer to the developed ones but the rulers had made it controversial by changing its western route.
“The prime minister should tell the truth about which CPEC route the government wants to build first,” he said.
He said Mr Sharif should also take along the chief ministers of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on his visits to China, instead of just his ‘brother and son’.
The PTI’s provincial chief organiser Sardar Yar Muhammad Rind said the people of Nasirabad and other areas would reject in the next elections the leaders who had plundered public funds released for development.
Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2016
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