LAHORE: Two opposition parties on Tuesday – a day after the ghastly blast in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat area on Ferozepur Road – questioned the efficacy of the safe city project.

Leaders of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) criticised the government for failing to weed out terrorism despite spending obscene money on various projects.

“The suicide blast shows that terrorism is again taking roots in the country. Irrespective of the government denials, there are facilitators and hideouts of terrorists in the city,” Punjab PPP President Qamar Zaman Kaira told a press conference here.

Flanked by Chaudhry Aslam Gill, Malik Usman and Asim Bhatti, he said the explosion also exposed the so-called safe city project worth billions of rupees undertaken by the Shahbaz government as it failed to detect movement of the terrorists.

“A government preoccupied in Panama case and having an annoyed interior minister could not think of the security of the masses, he added.

Referring to the deaths of nine policemen in Monday’s blast, he claimed that various terrorist attacks had claimed lives of 300 policemen and officers in the provincial capital. He said the sleeper cells could be eliminated only if the government decides to take indiscriminate action but, he alleged, it was reluctant to fight against terrorism. He alleged that the rulers were rather benefiting from the extremist ideology.

“An extremist tendency exists within the PML-N; its one minister alleges that a colleague in the cabinet has links with extremist outfits,” he said.

Answering a question about cases under 16 MPO in some districts of the province, the PPP leader said the party had always protested peacefully and there was no justification for such an action. The jiyalas (diehard fans) who could not be deterred by lashes and hangings (during Gen Zia regime) would not be frightened by such measures, he said.

He said the party could not be deprived of the right to protest and urged the administration to show loyalty to law and not to the rulers.

Mr Kaira said the days of the government were numbered and the PPP would go ahead with the ‘Go Nawaz go’ drive in which chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari would also participate.

He told a questioner that if any PPP leader had acquired Aqama (a visa granting right to work in Gulf states), then it should be made public. He claimed that the PPP leaders had proper visas to live in Dubai, a reference to former president Asif Ali Zardari’s long stays in the Gulf state.

About PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry’s statement that the PPP was not on the forefront in the Panama case, he said when Terms of Reference (TORs) for probing the case were being framed, the PPP was leading the committee.

Admitting that the party had not enthusiastically responded to the PTI and other parties’ petition in the Panama case, he said the PPP had thought that courts would go soft on Nawaz Sharif. He lauded the judiciary as well as the JIT for working beyond expectations.

PTI: The party leaders questioned the performance of the safe city project, saying Rs12 billion project had not been able to contain terrorism.

Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar, Shafqat Mahmood and Mian Mehmoodur Rashid demanded financial and performance audit of the project.

Chaudhry Sarwar, a former governor, said the project was aimed at saving the rules rather than the city. “The Rs12 billion project is confined to papers only. Punjab should provide unlimited powers to the Rangers otherwise durable peace will not return to the city or province, he said.

PTI Information Secretary Shafqat Mahmood said the nation was united against terrorism but the rulers had failed to provide security and basic health facilities to the masses.

Speaking to reporters outside the Punjab Assembly, Mian Mehmoodur Rashid also called into question the performance of the vital project. He demanded its audit without delay.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2017