TANDO MOHAMMAD KHAN: Lashing out at the Pakistan Peoples Party government and former president Asif Zardari, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan said on Friday that there was no justice in Sindh as “law of the jungle” has been prevailing here.

Addressing a big gathering of his party workers in a ground next to the T.M. Khan Sugar Mills here, he criticised the education, health and police system in the province and took credit for bringing ‘revolutionary’ changes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where his party formed the provincial government for the first time after 2013 general elections.

He held Mr Zardari responsible for the closure of the sugar mill in Tando Mohammad Khan. “It is evident that this mill is closed as Asif Zardari wants to buy another sugar mill.”

The PTI chief has promised a turnaround in education if voted to power

Mr Khan said that unless his party formed its government in Sindh, farmers would not be able to get an adequate price for their commodities despite increasing cost of production.

He said that prosperity could not be seen in a society where people did not get justice.

He said that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and PPP got six chances each to rule Sindh in the past 30 years, yet they failed to reform the police system. However, the PTI did it in four years of its first term in KP, he claimed.

Referring to ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, he said there were still many influentials roaming freely. “I will face these thieves by standing with the people of Sindh,” he said.

He regretted that as per a recent survey on the state of education in Pakistan, Sindh and Balochistan lagged far behind KP and Punjab.

He said he took pride in saying that this time KP had outdone Punjab in the education sector.

He said that the reason behind Sindh lagging behind was the successive provincial governments, particularly of the PPP, which did not attach importance to education.

He said the PTI government in KP had spent a lot on education and eight out of 10 of Pakistan’s districts which excelled in education were in KP, with Haripur ranking first.

He promised to bring “revolutionary” reforms in the education sector in Sindh if PTI formed the government in the province.

Criticising the police system in Sindh, he said it was worst among all provinces since the rulers misused the force for their own sake and to scare people by registering false cases against them. “Instead of serving masses police harass opponents at the behest of the rulers but the KP police system has been reformed to meet international standards.”

He said that incidents of terrorism and crimes had been on a decline due to the fact that the police there were free from any political influence. “People in KP respect their police force now but in Sindh people are frightened,” he added.

He said when ministers and provincial chief executives misused the force, the police also robbed the people.

He said the IGP of Sindh himself said that officers under his command were being posted against bribes. Such a force could never serve people.

He said that those who destroyed institutions could never put them on a right track. “Since the PPP and PML-N destroyed police they could not change it. But PTI will certainly do it if it gets the chance to rule.”

Talking about the healthcare system in KP, he said it was considerably improved although there was always room for improvement.

He said that the people needed quality healthcare and merit-based police systems.

PTI leaders Dr Arif Alvi, former chief minister Liaquat Jatoi, Sadaqat Jatoi, Ameer Bux Bhutto, Haleem Adil Shaikh and others also spoke.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2017