CHITRAL: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan has said the Panama Papers case has changed the very course of history of the country by subjecting to accountability “looters” and “plunderers” who siphon off Rs1,000 billion every year into their accounts in foreign countries.

Addressing the groundbreaking ceremony of the 69MW Lawi hydropower project executed by the Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation near Drosh here on Tuesday, he said it was happening for the first time that a sitting prime minister, his family and coterie were being probed for their corruption.

Claiming the credit for holding Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to account for each and every penny of his ill-gotten money, the PTI chief said the nation would soon hear ‘good news’ from the court and would get rid of corrupt rulers.

He said the noose of accountability was being tightened around the necks of the ‘big pillars’ of corruption instead of the smaller ones as happened in the past and all this happened due to his consistent and ruthless crusade against corruption and the corrupt who had kept the countrymen backward and poor.

Talking about the use of hydroelectricity and the role of the PTI government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Mr Khan claimed that his vision was being put into action by exploiting the fabulous potential of hydropower in the province which happened to be the cheapest source of energy apart from being environment friendly.

He alleged that the previous Pakistan Peoples Party government had entered into an agreement with independent power producers (IPPs) at an exorbitant rate for exacting commission while the present Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government resorted to coal-based power generation which was highly hazardous for the environment due to which China recently shut down its hundreds of such power units.

Mr Khan said the PTI government resolved to exploit 2,900MW electricity in Chitral for which it had launched 56 micro hydropower projects in the district and dozens more would be launched in near future, having generation capacity of more than 200MW.

He said the KP government had recently completed a feasibility study of 1,000 hydropower projects across the province out of which 82 had been identified in Chitral.

The PTI chief said safe drinking water, health care facility and education had been the basic issues of people and it was his party’s government that had done excellent job in all the three sectors by bringing about tangible changes, while the KP police had been reshaped on modern lines to protect people’s life and property.

Earlier, KP Minister for Energy and Power Mohammad Atif Khan, flanked by Imran Khan, formally inaugurated the Lawi hydropower project by unveiling its plaque.

The minister said the project would be completed in five years at a cost of Rs20.087bn for which Chinese construction firms had been hired.

Provincial Information Minister Shah Farman also spoke on the occasion and expressed the hope that in the next general election only PTI candidates would return from the area to the national and provincial assemblies.

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2017