There is a difference of 180 degree between public aspirations & government’s priorities: PAT

A consultative meeting of Pakistan Awami Tehreek was held here at the party’s central secretariat in Lahore with Secretary General Khurram Nawaz Gandapur in the chair. The meeting condemned the government for not sharing any information regarding two people who were burnt to death and suicide bombers who attacked churches in Lahore despite passage of two days. The consultative meeting was attended by Bashrat Jaspal, GM Malik, Sheikh Zahid Fayyaz, Jawad Hamid, Sohail Raza, Razia Naveed, Shoaib Tahir, Ahmad Nawaz Anjum, and Sajid Bhatti. The participants of the meeting described the suicides hits in churches as failure of the government.

Addressing the meeting, Khurram Nawaz Gandapur said that the rulers do not have any credibility. He said that people take to streets only when they are compelled to do so as they see no light at the end of tunnel. He said that whatever is happening on the roads of Lahore is a reflection of the government’s performance. He said that there is a difference of 180 degree between public aspirations and the government’s priorities. He said that while the masses are worried for their economic and physical security, the rulers consider metro buses and motorways the solution to the national ailments.

Khurram Nawaz Gandapur said that instead of taking steps to secure people’s lives from imminent threat of terrorism, Punjab’s counter-terrorism department, Chief Secretary, IGP, and the whole government is holding lengthy meetings for last one week to buy helicopter of Rs. 100 billion plus whereas terrorists are busy in shedding blood of innocent people.

He said that the nation knows for which purpose this helicopter is being bought. He said that ransacking of metro bus stations, a project of Rs. 50 billion which is so close to the heart of the CM Punjab, is merely a trailer of public discontent, adding that the whole film can be played some day.

The PAT Secretary General said that when people, deprived of basic necessities of life and concerned for their security, look at grandiose projects launched with a view to getting kickbacks and commissions, their blood begins to boil. He said had this money been spent on the welfare of the people, dead bodies would not have been lifted from every house today and hospitals would not have been filled with the victims of bomb blasts. He said that the Punjab Chief Minister wants to end terrorism through statements only, adding that since the time National Action Plan against terrorism was unveiled, dozens of people have lost their lives in two terrorist incidents in Lahore but there is no change in the tone and tenor of statements of the Chief Minister.

The meeting expressed its extreme concern on the employment of delaying tactics in the local government elections. The participants said that the Election Commission teaches the government ways of postponing LG polls. They said that no more delay would be borne in the local bodies polls.