Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan’s full speech at the Launching Ceremony of PTI’s first 100 days agenda, held in Islamabad on May 20, 2018.
“I want to first and foremost congratulate Taimoor Jhaagra; for the first time in our 22 year history we are going into an election with so much preparation. We have a 100 day plan, and we have the valuable experience of governing a province like Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK). I think we would not have been prepared this way had we taken government in 2013.
Now I want to first speak to you about why we needed a 100 day plan; the actual purpose of this is that when we are at the peak of our strength in power, we need to take the most difficult decisions that reflect the direction in which we are heading. It is a roadmap as to where we are going, our ideology and what matters we take a stand on. What is our ideology? That which is of the people who created Pakistan. That we were to become a model country for a true Islamic welfare state. A society without justice is the same as a society for animals; it is a justice system and humanity and compassion that separates us from animals. A welfare state does not see how the powerful can become more powerful, it looks at how it can uplift its more deprived. How are civilised societies defined? Look at places like Karachi’s Machar colony and how children are living there. Our religion has very high principles for humanity, compassion and justice in governance. Our religion history shows us that for 700 years Muslims scholars and scientists were amongst the top in the world. This was the dream for Pakistan. We have become a system for cunning animals who are ruling at the top. Billions have been siphoned off without any accountability. A small handful is reflecting what the powerful think is their right; no accountability. “Mujhai kyun nikala” is a reflection of that. The dream for Pakistan needs to be revived. Asad Umar has given you a full view into our economic position. The loans we had in one year are now being taken in one month. 27000 trillion is the debt for Pakistan at the moment. Which government can tell us how these loans will be paid back? They have left no capability in our cost of doing business to repay these loans. What have they done to our export business? How is wealth creation to be enabled when they are sitting on people’s money. Neither can we collect money; 800,000 people pay tax in the country holding up the burden of over 200 million people. The whole purpose of our 100 day plan is to reverse all of this. Today if you go to England, you won’t even find an animal hungry over there. The animals in the West are kept better than we treat our humans over here. We have to bring our principles of welfare and reverse all our policies and bring our downtrodden classes up socio economically. Over three crore child
ren of ours are studying in government schools; how can we lift them? Bring them into higher education. 25 Lakhs children in Madrassahs; why did no one think of them? They can also be doctors and engineers. From here on all our policies that will be made will be to uplift people. If it is a hospital; we need to think of how we can treat the poor. We have to think of how to turn a youth bulge into an opportunity through job creation and making them an engine of growth. Our first pledge is to lift people socio economically. Then, we need civil service reforms; the delivery of civil services and how they can become beneficial to the public…how to bring a system of merit in. Why did it take us so long to fix hospitals in KPK? Because there is a vested interest sitting everywhere. Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital (SKMCH) just got an international award that certifies hospitals to be of a certain level globally; it is one of the highest certifications. SKMCH was said to be an impossible task; a free cancer hospital; where equipment is expensive and oncologists short… it was said to be impossible. 75 percent of its patients are free; it got world class classification meaning the poorest walking through its doors are getting world class treatment. I recruited its initial team, people like Dr. Burki to come and help reform hospitals in KP. Pakistan has a massive asset in the form of its highly successful expat Pakistanis, but who will only come in when a system allows them to do work and make a difference. If we fix our governance, the overseas human capital is your biggest asset. We brought in people like Dr. Burki in KPK; he started work in places like Lady Reading Hospital; autonomised it, changed the laws, worked to change mindsets among status quo doctors. One of the hospital wards we found out had a 23 percent mortality rate under one doctor; in a government hospital instead of being removed he was working under a stay order. A government hospital cannot give treatment like a private hospital if it is not based on a system of merit. In private organisations who is made the top CEO? Someone who is brought in on merit. This was the first time someone decided to change the system to bring quality treatment to the people. Pick any government institution and you will see this problem across the board. There is no system of reward and punishment; in the 1960s we saw the highest development in our history. This is because we had quality civil service, filled with people of merit and competence. Our civil service was depoliticised. Our delivery system was ruined and politics came in. Till we don’t do these reforms, nothing will change in Pakistan.
For the economy; initiatives like CPEC are an opportunity but only if we extract the right benefit of it by putting our house in order. But more than CPEC, it is overseas Pakistanis who will help us by bringing in investment but only if governance is fixed over here. We need easy implementation for investment opportunities and we will facilitate this straight from the PM house, using turkey as an example. Our exporters are screaming out loud as they cannot reinvest because the government holds on to their money. Till the government itself is not involved in wealth creation; no change will happen. And Jahangir Tareen made a fabulous point about investment in agriculture; this is a sector that can show you change in 8-9 months. What he spoke of using scientific methods and research; no one has ever thought of this or of becoming competitive in the world. The focus has been on the cities, ignoring our most lucrative and agricultural based sector.
Recently Nawabshah was declared to have experienced the hottest day in the year. Global warming will affect Pakistan very badly. You fly over Karachi and Lahore and all you see is a concrete jungle that retains heat; the more this happens the less we will attract rain. This global warming system has one solution; growing trees. This is not a luxury; this is an emergency for survival. It makes me so angry when I see N league people talking; saying there are no trees in KP. We have given you locations and coordinates; you can go and verify in person instead of just talking away clueless on television. They destroyed forests in Punjab. Instead of criticising KPK, which has been audited twice by WWF and IUCN, which had been appreciated by the Bonn Challenge and WeF… these are Huge organisations. This is a massive achievement for Pakistan. It is our bureaucracy like Nazar Shah and Malik Amin who engaged locos communities and turned it into an employment opportunity; we had the political will to do it and it happened. Leaders like Erdogan, Mahathir Make things happen. Our 100 day plan will make things happen.
What is our biggest energy crisis to date? Commission making projects. We have the potential to make electricity using hydro power, but clean energy like this makes little commissions and requires more effort so they decided to set up coal power plants. This has massive environmental impact. The word over coal plants are being shut. Now suddenly they are scrambling to cut ribbons for orange line, for Islamabad airport before implementing systems. Did you ever hear of Nelson Mandela cutting ribbons? Making motorways is hailed as a massive achievement. You build a nation and motorways will come themselves.”
