Loading the political dice against the PPP on its home turf, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced a slew of projects for Sindh’s second largest city as he asked people to ask the previous rulers what they had done for the country, except for pushing it into darkness.This was Sharif’s third consecutive visit to Sindh, PPP’s political powerhouse, within a month. Earlier, he had addressed a public rally in Thatta on March 9 followed by his visit to Karachi, where he had participated in a function organised by the Hindu community on March 14.He painted a bleak picture of the state of public facilities in Sindh, describing supply of unclean drinking water, dilapidated roads, garbage heaps, poor standards of education and health services as glaring examples of bad governance. Sharif mentioned the development projects in energy, communication and other sectors which he has initiated after the PML-N’s victory in the 2013 elections. He asked the people to question former president Pervez Musharraf and the PPP why such projects had not been undertaken during their regimes. However, he said, his government took up the unfinished task after coming to power and motorways were now being built throughout the country. The prime minister also claimed that the country would soon get rid of unemployment, poverty and illiteracy, and medical treatment facilities would be made affordably available for everyone owing to massive development going on under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).Sharif said the country’s internal demographics were changing owing to development activities and road infrastructure being developed from Gwadar to China border. He said Hyderabad had also been purged of terrorists, who were now on the run. Sharif reiterated his resolve to eliminate the menace of terrorism.
He said peace was also restoring in Balochistan where a vast network of roads was being developed under CPEC. Sharif, however, obliquely took jibes at the PPP-led Sindh government as he made a reference to the piles of garbage in Sindh’s provincial capital. He said Hyderabad would also benefit from that development as the city had earlier been deprived of clean drinking water with its road infrastructure in a shambles. He said economic zones would also be developed throughout the country, besides establishing colleges and universities. While the prime minister remained guarded in his criticism of the PPP’s Sindh government and kept a lid on the political strategy, Railways Minister Saad Rafique, who was accompanying him, put the PML-N’s cards on the table. Fulfilling a decades old demand of the people of Hyderabad, the prime minister announced establishment of a federal university in the city and a grant of Rs1 billion for the project.
There are reports that the Prime Minister might also visit Jacobabad, Naushehro Feroze, Larkana and Tharparkar to boost sagging morale of his party workers and try to get some space for PML-N in PPP’s bastion. Though intervention of PML-N Government has been selective whereas there was need for an all-encompassing strategy to do something for people of Sindh and win their hearts. To remove the tag of Punjab based party, PML-N needs to increase on its appearance in all provinces by taking steps to resolve the issues of the people.
