No Swaying Through Rhetoric: Ahsan Iqbal Challenges Imran Khan To Gauge Progress On Ground

Terming the 100 days plan by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf as pack of deceits and ambitions, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz ministers on Tuesday challenged Imran Khan and his party to gauge development indicators in Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd May, 2018 ) :Terming the 100 days plan by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf as pack of deceits and ambitions, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz ministers on Tuesday challenged Imran Khan and his party to gauge development indicators in Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

"It is better to gauge the development indicators instead of trying to sway masses through jugglery of words. The PTI could not implement its 90 days plan in KPK announced in previous manifesto and now has come out with another plan to hoodwink masses," said Ahsan Iqbal Minister for Planning and Development, at a news conference.

"With 1825 days already down the road, people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa seek explanation from PTI-led government on 90 days plan," Ahsan Iqbal said flanked by fellow ministers. Instead of giving another plan, Imran Khan should first answer the masses on previous plan, Ahsan said.

"Whether it was corruption, intra-party elections, execution of energy projects and social sector development, all was a saga of massive failure of the PTI-led KPK government." "We also question from those who are once again on the screen to deceive the people, as to how much implementation of their manifesto, they had ensured during five years in the government," he challenged.

He said Imran Khan's speeches and claims are unrealistic, imaginative and beyond reality. His performance is 'Zero plus Zero - Equal to Zero.' He said PML-N had diligently implemented its manifesto of 4Es � Energy, Extremism, Education and Economy and our efforts had been endorsed by international financial and ranking institutions.

Our progress in social sector has been exemplary, economic growth was the highest during last 13 years, we added over 10,000 MW power to the system and above all shattered the terrorist networks in the country.

Minister for Finance, Miftah Ismail said the 100-day agenda presented by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) Chief Imran Khan was not based on reality as it would incur huge monetary burden on the government.

"Although it seems very ridiculous to talk on the agenda given by the PTI chief, but if we calculate, the government will have to spend Rs1,600 billion per year extra amount to fully act upon the pledges made in the agenda." He said according to PTI's plan, an amount of Rs50 billion per year would be required in terms of administrative cost for establishing new province while Rs120 billion would be needed for poverty alleviation.

Similarly in order to provide 10 million jobs, the government would need additional Rs140 billion while Rs15 billion per annum would be required for easing taxes on Small and Medium Enterprises sector.

In addition, the PTI also claimed to reduce electricity cost and to give special incentives packages to the export sector which would need another Rs55 billion and Rs100 billion respectively. Likewise to build five million houses, the government would also need Rs100 billion and Rs160 billion would be required for establishing wealth fund.

Minister for National Health Services Regulation and Coordination Saira Afzal Tarrar said the government had successfully completed uniform health survey to compile an accurate data on the health services and shortcomings.

She said this data will be helpful for coming governments to make plans in the health sector. She said the government had also introduced first ever Health Vision in the country. She said the ministry had also been working on a health document that included performance of the ministry during last five years to improve the health service delivery system besides covering other aspects of health sector to serve the country's people.

She said an amount of Rs10 billion had been allocated for addressing the issue of nutrition, being faced by the country's women and children. She added a unique strategy had been made to control the further devastation from the issue.

She said keeping in view the increasing number of hepatitis cases in the country, the ministry has launched hepatitis strategic framework under which special measures had been taken to control the disease and ensuring medical cover to the patients.

She said the hepatitis medicines available in the country's markets are comparatively at cheapest rates against rest of the world, as 12 local manufacturers had been allowed to manufacture the hepatitis medicines locally.

Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training Engr Muhammad Baligh ur Rehman Tuesday said the government had enhanced the budget for higher education sector from Rs 45 billion to Rs107 billion during the last five years.

He said the federal government had established new universities and set up their campuses in different cities, besides upgrading existing educational infrastructure to impart quality education to students at different levels.

He said under the Prime Minister Laptop Scheme, the government had distributed 100,000 laptops per year on merit among students of various educational institutions. With this project, he said Pakistan had been included among top five countries having digital e-learning system.

Baligh ur Rehman said: "We have prepared new educational curricula from class one to five and established Curriculum Framework for the first time in the history of county."