- Yasmin Rashid says govt started uplift schemes under pressure from PTI
LAHORE: The political parties contesting NA-120 elections are addressing civic issues, including stinking streets, bumpy roads, and a dearth of clean drinking water, etc, in their election campaign.
Though the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has objected the initiation of abrupt uplift schemes in NA-120 by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and termed them pre-poll rigging, yet it is trying to cash in on the ruling party’s development work.
The banners placed in the whole constituency read: “Thanks Imran Khan. It is because of you that roads and bricked streets are being constructed in the constituency—from residents of NA-120.”
PTI candidate Dr Yasmin Rashid has said that the PML-N has failed to solve the problems of the people of NA-120, despite the fact that the seat has been in hands of the Sharif family for the last 30 years.
“One can see the true face of decades of development in the area behind shrine of Data Sahib where roads and streets are in shabby condition,” she said. She claimed that the ruling party started uplift projects in the area under pressure from PTI.
“The roads and streets are broken in the constituency and traffic in the area are poorly planned since pompous mass transit project have been prioritised at the cost of health and education of the people of the constituency.
If this is the condition in Nawaz Sharif’s own constituency, one can imagine just how bad conditions would be elsewhere across the country and what will be the fate of people if they elect Kulsoom Nawaz,” she added.
“In this scenario, my victory will be the victory of the people of the constituency,” she claimed.
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) candidate Faisal Mir said the biggest problem facing the people of the constituency was lack of clean drinking water.
“The drinking water in NA-120 is unclean. Almost all filtration plants in the constituency have gone dry. The remaining filtration plants are giving health hazardous drinking water,” he said. “Houses are flooded whenever it rains and streets stink,” he added.
He said that the majority of the health issues in the constituency are a result of the absence of clean drinking water and blamed Nawaz Sharif for it, adding that the PML-N had given the Jangla Bus Service priority over these imperative issues.
“If I am elected I would first install water filtration plants in the area,” he added.
On the other hand, ousted premier Nawaz Sharif’s daughter, Maryam Nawaz, who is running her mother Begum Kulsoom’s campaign in the NA-120 by-polls, credited the PML-N for progress in Lahore and lashed out at the PTI, asking, “What have they ever done for Lahore?”
Inaugurating the PML-N’s central office in the NA-120, “How can they ask you for votes?” she questioned.
The NA-120 by-polls are scheduled to be held on September 17.
