Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pervez Khattak’s address at the Launching Ceremony of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) first 100 days agenda, held in Islamabad on May 20, 2018.
“I want to speak of my experience; nothing is more important than experience. We took governance in a province where selfish politicians had never thought of any policies for the people; and governance for them was just a time pass. But Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) is a province that is ruthless to people who do not think for the common man. I have seen an amazing leader in Imran Khan in being able to deliver to the party and to keep the Awaam satisfied as well. When I became CM; I told Imran Khan that to implement the promises we made in 100 days was impossible. But if without spending money, without fake advertising you hear from the people that yes they are working for change; moving towards it so then we will know we are doing something. But if people start whispering that we are the same of the old lot, I will come to you and say I am not able to do this. I first called in all the institutions and educated them about our policies; the people of the status quo didn’t understand that we have to work for change. It took countless hours and days to implement this mindset. The real difficulties then began; especially in the arena of reforms. And reforms cannot happen without amendments to the law. When reforms were never done before, when laws were never made to facilitate the awaam… I saw that there were hurdles in every meeting, in every path. Every meeting resulted in the argument; that. This is against policies. It took us time to change the laws. Whenever you set out to do something new, it is imperative you have to change the law and this is where the difficult time lies. We have made over 200 new laws. Even now, our law department is inundated. Whoever is sitting there; they will never tell you a way forward and this is why delays happen. We wish this was highlighted from day one, but it doesn’t happen. Whatever we have learnt, whatever we have done in the province has been done in consultation with Imran Khan. We have done nothing in the province that is not in line with PTI’s vision. I never bulldozed any laws in parliament and all laws are passed with consensus.
Every time we tried to pass a law, lobbies stood against us saying this is against the law. For 2.5 years we worked to depoliticise the police and reform it. Initially this was done on goodwill. At the same time we tried to make people understand we are bringing change in our institutions; we made the people believe. Otherwise the people of Pakistan you know have no tolerance if they are wronged! We spoke of reforms in education and health and educated people that we needed to make hospitals autonomous, being a system of merit, bring transparency in governance. Thankfully we have been massively successful and this will show in 2018. Our opponents ask what has PTI done; I challenge them all to show what they have done. I want anchors to invite me on a debate with them all. Any reports you see; PILDAT, Alif Ailaan, World Bank… we are ahead of them everywhere and these are independent monitoring bodies. In education; do you realise that the child of the poor studies in Urdu and our children study in English. Did we ever raise this question? How unfair are we being? It is PTI that realised it and children in KPK are studying English till 4-5 grade now and when it hits 10th grade there will be a revolution as they give competition to the rich. No one cares what happens to the poor; no one cares about the future of the poor persons child. All education talk is just rhetoric and no practicality. Same way with hospitals; can the rich politicians tell us why the poor cannot be treated? Sometimes when the media shows schools that are still or equipped; I ask them, did we do this? Or the politicians who brought decades of rot? See the schools we have built and the hospital! They ask what reforms we brought? What about 100 percent doctor attendance; 100 percent teachers from Kohistan to Chitral. We have Sehat Insaf card; did anyone ever think of this? Did anyone ever follow the law that says free education and health for all?
We have empowered local governments; we had the mettle to devolve power and this was so difficult. Projects like the BTT where we went into people’s homes; engages women and youth and gave them funds to plant trees. When the willpower is there and a leader like Imran Khan; nothing can stop you. We stopped the timber mafia; today only a very daring person will dare cut a tree in our province. I just want to say; Khan Sab you will work with your mind and not forget your friends. This is my advice; I am older than you. Work with your well-wishers and Pakistan’s well-wishers”.
