Nurtured under the instinct of self-promotion and labelling himself as the sole proficient and industrious executive authority, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif now seems complacent to inaugurate development projects initiated by their predecessor Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government in the Federal Capital.
For decades, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Shahbaz Sharif propagated himself as “Shahbaz Speed” but though it’s been well over a year since he took over as the prime minister, his regime failed to materialize any new mega development projects in the Capital City.
Last year, the federal government allocated Rs 500 billion in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2022-23 for the Bhara Kahu-Faizabad Metro Bus Service. However, it turned out to be nothing but merely a budgetary allocation and the entire fiscal year went in vain in this regard.
Now with just one-and-a-half month to stay in the power, the federal government has again allocated Rs 29 million out of total cost of Rs 278 million in the PSDP 2023-24 for the feasibility studies for Bhara Kahu-Faizabad and Rawat-Faizabad Metro Bus.
From 2018 to 2022, every time when the PTI-led federal or Punjab government inaugurated a project, the PML-N leadership would take a jibe at it and even used to organize their own separate events to cut the ribbon of the completed projects without holding any office.
On October 25, 2020, the PML-N workers led by Khwaja Saad Rafique and Sardar Ayaz Sadi reached Jain Mandir in Lahore in a truck to inaugurate the Orange Line Metro Train project, terming it a brainchild of Shahbaz Sharif. Even though the formal inauguration of the said project was scheduled to be performed by the Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar.
Now the PML-N leadership seems to be getting a taste of their own medicine as they are facing bashing on social media for cutting the ribbons of PTI-initiated projects.
In a ceremony on Wednesday, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif inaugurated Captain Karnal Sher Khan Shaheed Avenue formerly known as IJP Road and 17th Avenue Overhead Bridge on Srinagar Highway.
The former PTI’s MNA from the Constituency NA-53 (Islamabad-II) Ali Nawaz Awan – who also held the portfolio of Prime Minister’s Special Assistant for CDA Affairs in the previous government – slammed Shahbaz Sharif for lying once again that the PTI government had halted all the projects.
Ali Nawaz Awan said that the fact is that the Rs 4.9 billion project of rehabilitation and extension of the IJP Road was initiated by the PTI government in 2021. He said that more than 70 percent of the work on the project had already been completed while PTI was in still power.
آئی جے پی روڈ کو کرنل شیر خان شہید کے نام سے منسوب کرنا خوش آئند ہے کیونکہ شہداء قوم کا فخر ہیں۔ یہ منصوبہ جڑواں شہروں کے لیے ایک سنگ میل کی حیثیت رکھتا ہے۔
شوباز سپیڈ نے آج پھر ایک جھوٹا کریڈٹ لینے کی کوشش کی جبکہ حقیقت یہ ہے کہ IJP روڈ کی توسیع اور تعمیر نو کا 5 ارب لاگت کا… pic.twitter.com/kDvZ6oFaz3— Ali Awan (@AliAwanPTI) June 14, 2023
Therefore, he added, that the real credit for the projects of IJP Road and 17th Avenue Interchange goes to the former Prime Minister Imran Khan and former Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar. He said that the entire politics of PML-N revolves around putting plaques on the projects of others.
Prior to that, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif inaugurated the flyover at Rawal Dam Chowk on August 14, 2022, another project whose groundbreaking was performed by the former Prime Minister Imran Khan on July 2, 2020 along with three other development projects.
The four projects included Rawal Dam Chowk Interchange, Construction of PWD Underpass, Korang Bridge at Islamabad Expressway, and Phase One of Development Works at I-15 Residential Project.
The only mega development project of his own party in the Capital City – which Shahbaz Sharif inaugurated – was the Metro Bus Service from Peshawar Morr to New Islamabad International Airport. The former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had laid the foundation stone of the project in May 2017.
Even the Green and Blue lines of the Mass Transit Metro Bus Service in Islamabad was conceived and executed by the Capital Development Authority (CDA), and it had been working on it for nearly a year.
Shahbaz Sharif inaugurated the Blue Line and Green Line Metro Bus Service in July 2022; though the PML-N had nothing to do with the project in terms of launching it. So, if Imran Khan survived the Vote of Confidence in April 2022, it was him who would have inaugurated the Bus Service.
In April 2021, the former Prime Minister Imran Khan performed the groundbreaking of the 33 kilometer-long Margalla Highway – which passing through the Constitution Avenue was to link M-1 with Murree Road at Satra Meel bypassing Bhara Kahu.
However later, the route and design of the Bhara Kahu Bypass were altered and when the work on it was about to commence, the regime change took place and eventually in September 2022, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif laid the foundation stone of the bypass and the National Logistics Cell (NLC) was tasked to execute the project. Earlier it was the Frontier Works Organization (FWO) which had been awarded the contract.
The Margalla Avenue was scheduled to be completed in December 2022; however, it still remains under-construction.
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