-Says Imran Khan is not against motorways, but the corruption being committed in their name
-Murad Saeed says compared to PML-N, PTI govt has saved Rs3,000 billion in building roads
By Ali Imran
ISLAMABAD: Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said on Sunday that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government returned $10 billion debt in three years.
In a press conference alongside Communications Minister Murad Saeed, the information minister said that the previous governments of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) doubled Pakistan’s debts in their tenures.
He said despite paying back $10b, Pakistan was still being crushed under a “mountain of loans”. Fawad accused the Sharifs and Zardaris of “stealing Pakistan’s wealth”, saying the former ruling families stashed the debt taken out in the name of Pakistan in their foreign accounts.
He added that they were still hiding millions of dollars in their accounts in London and Paris.
In a comment on motorways construction, the minister said that Prime Minister Imran Khan was not against motorways, but the corruption being committed in their name. He said Sharifs used the motorway building to mint money, adding that Lahore-Islamabad Motorway was constructed at a cost of Rs60 billion taken in loans.
He alleged that “Sharifs were buying Avenfield Apartments in London at the time when the motorway was being constructed in Pakistan”, questioning where did the money for the flats come from.
Fawad said nations “are destroyed when cabinet members start committing corruption”. He took a dig at Shehbaz Sharif, the PML-N chief, saying Shehbaz was criticising the government over inflation but apparently his “peons deposited $25 million in his accounts”.
He claimed that there was a “mountain of corruption underneath every issue touched by the government”.
During the presser, Murad Saeed termed the past 10 years the “darkest decade” in Pakistan’s history. He claimed that the PTI government hasn’t built a single motorway with borrowed money as Imran Khan was against building roads by taking loans.
“In the PML-N era, a four-lane road was built at a cost of Rs37 crore while under the present government, the four-lane road is being built at a cost of Rs17 crore,” he said, adding that the PTI has saved Rs 3,000 billion so far if compared with the PML-N. He said that despite of the rise in the value of dollar and the cost of other construction material, PTI was constructing motorways and highways with low cost.
The minister shared the details of per kilometers cost based on factors – increase/decrease of PML-N and PTI governments which were showing huge difference in the cost.
“Prime Minister Imran Khan adopted zero tolerance against corruption and introduced culture of transparency and merit imperative for good governance and supremacy of law”, he said.
He said that present government was constructing historic roads and highways networks on the Build Operate Transfer and through investment instead of loans.
The minister said that nation was asking question, whether the past rulers should not have spent money on the welfare of people instead of committing corruption, accumulating debts and causing damages to national exchequer.
Murad said that present government saved precious money of the nation in every sector transparently, whereas the previous governments caused huge damages to the national exchequer by looting and signing expensive contracts on huge loans.
He said that today under the leadership of PM Imran Khan motorways were being built on investment and public private partnership.
He said that details about the roads contracts were made available on the website. He said that PTI government had completed planning for construction of additional 6118 km roads, highways and motorways including Peshawar –Dera Ismail Khan and Swat Motorways phase-II and many others mega projects.
