My Rebuttle: Imran Khan Accusition's Against Shahbaz Sharif Led Punjab Government

        My Rebuttle: Imran Khan Accusitions Against Shahbaz Sharif Led Punjab Government

What is disheartening and discouraging indeed, a party which raised the slogan of change and promised something different from old Poll Parties, is actually involved in mud slinging against its opponents. But few of their Leader Imran Khans allegation's  must be answered because they are completely false and immaterial to what  happened in last five yrs of Shahbaz Sharif led Punjab Government. Few of the allegations as follow are, 1) Shahbaz Sharif used development funds in Lahore while ignoring less developed area's and important sector's like health, education were ignored and priorities were not right. 2) Imran Khan promised to change the existing Land Revenue System with new one while blaming Shahbaz Sharif's inability to do that in his term of office, infect blamed Shahbaz Sharif to harness corruption to win 2013 GE through this "Patwar System". 3) PTI manifesto declaring that PTI coming Government will be run with few Ministers, adviser's and simplicity will be the key while Imran Khan blamed Shahbaz Sharif  who failed to do that. 4) Imran Khan allegation that PMLN ruled this country for 25 years, so why they want another chance or what change they may be able to bring which they couldn't  bring during their tenure's. 5) Finally declaring why SS failed to produce it's own Power??, while spending big on Metro and other Infrastructure project's.  Now let's dissect point by point where Imran Khan went wrong .

Imran Khan allegation that Lahore was preferred while rest of Punjab was ignored, is not correct rather a complete ignorance on his part from ground realities. Contrary to popular belief, Health and Education remained the key focus of Shahbaz Sharif. Giving you a rough idea when Shahbaz Shahrif took over, the Health Budget was a mere 6-7 billion rupees and during SS tenure it rose to a remarkable level of 85 billion, roughly 10.5% of total Punjab budget. Similarly Education Budget was a meagre 20-21 billion rupees when SS took over and it achieved new height's and reached 185 billion which is 25% of total Punjab Budget. Thing's do not end here when Shahbaz Sharif took over, Southern Punjab the most neglected part of Punjab where many Makhdoom's, Sardar's ruled and remained in Power corridor's but failed to improve it's fortune, SS took it's budget from a meagre 11-12% in Pervaiz Ellahi era to a staggering 32% in 2012-13 budget and close to 290 billion were spent in last five years on Southern Punjab Infrastructure. So where we find Shahbaz Sharif went wrong??. Now  let me quote few examples which might change the health and education land scape of this country in coming decades.

1) Comprehensive primary Education has been introduced with the help of "UK department For International Development" (DFID). "Sir Micheal Barber" a highly respected educationist, explained the story of Punjab education reform programme, calling it "Punjab School Reforms Road map". Most of the 36 districts in Punjab have made significant inroads and progress regarding Education, infect 31 districts now have  more than 90% enrolment in schools at Primary level. He says, teachers presence is far more higher in Punjab then rest of Pakistan, even higher among 22 countries supported by UK Department Of International Development (DFID). Under this programme, a massive 1.5 million new children were enrolled in schools and close to 81,000 new teachers have been hired. Punjab Government with the help of UK Government is running the largest Voucher scheme in the World, close to 14,0000 students are benefiting. Under the scheme, all the families who enrol their children in schools would get a sum of 15 US Dollars. According to "Sir Micheal Barber" number is increasing and programme will add a further 5,0000 to 80,000 students in next 18 months. These achievements according to him are largely due to better management and Governance in Punjab compared to rest of Pakistan and 22 other countries. World Bank President "Jim Yong Kim' lauded the Punjab Government for this historical achievement and reassured the Government Of Punjab of it's continuous assistance. 2) Similarly four new Women Universities  , Five New Medical Colleges , number of new Hospital's like Rawalpindi, Lahore, Behawalpur, Sargodha etc, State of the art "IT University" first of its kind in Pakistan established in Lahore, Danish schools were established across Punjab, School's in remote and less developed area's, University in Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Sub Campuses of Universities in many cities. Prime Land in Lahore was allotted to many Universities for their campuses, this Land was rescued from Land Grabber's. More than 70 new colleges , similarly IT labs in more than 4000 Higher Secondary School's across Punjab etc.

Punjab Land reforms "LRMIS" were introduced, a major source of corruption and nepotism in Punjab, the old system of Sher Shah Suri had become  too powerful and deep rooted, which had put the whole system hostage to "Patwar Mafia'. Shahbaz Shahrif took a very bold decision to computerised the whole record despite severe resistance and threat's of a political back lash but went ahead with the plan. This is a 10 billion World Bank funded plan already being implemented in 26 Districts and data entry in other 12 district's going on. To further strengthen the system and lay foundation of a new dawn "Shahbaz Shahrif Citizen Feedback System" was launched to tackle corruption in key department's of Punjab like Health, Police, LDA, WASA, Revenue and LRMIS. This is a very simple system when a person goes to these department's the office

record of that person along with his transaction detail's will pass on to the local officer and call centre. This is an integrated system and all data goes to head office Lahore. Some days latter, the person would receive a random call regarding his experience in Government Department and any inconvenience or did he had to bribe anyone during his visit. This programme was conceived by a young Jhang DCO and implemented by Shahbaz Sharif in Punjab with the help of World Bank, Infect World Bank awarded it's prestigious 2011 innovation fund prize to this person,  system has already started working in many districts and close to a million have already benefited from it. World Bank is planning to use this model in many countries

 PTI has included in it's Manifesto a thin Cabinet and promised to cut down the expenses in running of the Government, while Imran Khan has been a strong critic of Shahbaz Sharif in this regard that he wanted to be the most powerful person and did not want to share his power's  and ran the Province like a Kingdom. It must be understood clearly that big countries and economies, like China, India are Governed by few Ministries, to be more precise India with 22 and China with 27. Now important part is austerity measure's and cutting down expenditure's. Shahbaz Shahrif never took his pay in last five years rather  donated to a Hospital. Never took his Medical expenditure's as Chief executive despite being entitled and even his travel abroad on official visits cost Punjab Government few million rupees . Shahbaz Sharif according to Umer Cheema report on Income Tax was the highest tax payer in Punjab Assembly, paying more than 5 million rupees of income Tax.

Imran Khan declared Metro Bus system a project worth 70 billion rupees and a complete wastage of money,  this money must have been spent on health and education. I completely disagree with this notion , as explained earlier Health and Education were for the first time in Punjab 65 year history given due priority and allocated enough funds. Coming back to Metro, close to 1,20,000 people are already travelling daily on this system and Lahore being the Economic Hub of Punjab was preferred. Lahore contribution to National Exchequer in term's of GDP is close to 10-11%, its total population has exceeded 10 million, growing at a robust pace of 5-5.5%

despite severe economic crunch. So 30-40 million travelling yearly and reducing travelling time from 4 hour to 45 minute's, saving million's of liter's of fuel yearly and hundred's of lives' saved due to safe travel, finally big chunk of money coming as foreign direct investment by Turkey. Similarly an Air Conditioned Bus System introduced in other big cities of Punjab like Multan, Behawalpur, Sialkot, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala etc so its not fair to say only Lahore was preferred.


 Imran Khan rhetoric that PMLN ruled Pakistan for 25 year's and so they don't deserve another chance is just baffling and mind boggling as I went through Pakistani history I could  find PMLN ruling the Federal Government twice, once in 6 November 1990 to 18 July 1993 and secondly from 17 February 1997 to 12 October 1999, both time's Bosses interfered, directly or indirectly. Yes if IK talking about Punjab then Imran must appreciate the fact that Provinces had limited power's and resources till 18th amendment, still if you look around every Pakistani must appreciate this fact that Punjab as a Province is miles ahead of other province's, which is actually unfortunate and creating a sense of deprivation among other Provinces.

Finally, Imran Khan declaring Shahbaz Sharif led Punjab Government the real villain for massive Power failure's in Punjab because according to him after 18th amendment, the Provinces got the right to produce it's own Electricity. How on earth one can blame SS for this, 18th amendment was passed late in 2010 and  a Power Project  takes 30 to 48 month to complete , You need sovereign guarantees to deal with International organisation's, Tunsa Project in Punjab with Chinese Firm is a glaring example where Federal Government failed to give a guarantee , why Imran never talks about Chechoon Ki Maliyan and Nandi Pur Power project's where Punjab has been robbed off close to 1000 megawatts of energy due to Federal Government incompetence and targeted negligence against SS led Punjab Government, how on earth spending  30 billion Metro will get rid of Power Crisis. Finally one must appreciate the fact, that according to expert's Pakistan already has enough Power but it's mismanagement and corruption on Federal Government's part that is the major reason of current Power crisis, issues like circular debt climbing upto 800 billion rupees, power theft and line loses in PPP administered Provinces etc.