On 14th August, 1947 Pakistan
has come into being through a
democratic process under the leadership of Quaid-E-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
But the irony is that even after the lapse of more than six decades the
democracy is still at its nascent stage in Pakistan. Due to which democratic
norms and traditions have not been established on a sound footing in our
country. Resultantly, we - the voters - are electing wrong leaders to represent
us in our legislative bodies who have been eventually disappointing us service
delivery and legislation.
Now that,
when the 12th general
elections of Gilgit Baltistan Legislative Assembly (GBLA) are going to be held
on June 8, 2015, our ex-representative from GBLA-6 Hunza Mr. Mutabiat Shah have
issued a statement
on social media wherein he had
listed down 36 projects worth 1905.4 million which had been initiated or
completed during last government tenure from the year 2009 to 2015
in Hunza.
Whereas Mr. Wazir Baig the Speaker GBLA and PPP backed second representative
from GBLA-6 Hunza, has openly accepted poor performance of PPP
Government and their outright failure by
saying that “it was a golden opportunity. We could have done so much, but we
have failed our people as we have simply wasted
four years in government” and predicted a "bleak future for PPP in
Gilgit-Baltistan". He further stated that "“We will forever
repent for not being able to carve out new districts in our tenure,” This
indicates an outright failure of
PPP backed representatives from GBLA-6 Hunza in materializing their manifesto
even after having their own President, Prime Minister, Chairman Senate and
Chief Ministers in three provinces including Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) Pakistan.
As far as
Mr. Mutabiat Shah and his role in the development of GBLA-6 Hunza is concerned,
I have summarized data from his Facebook post of May 15 in the given below to
easily assess his contribution with special focus on the ground
realities.
Mr. Mutabiat Shah claimed that during his
five year term at GBLA, his Government had spent almost two Billion rupees on
36 developmental projects in all the three regions of Hunza. According to
details, during his Government's five year tenure, our representatives have
started or completed 16 projects in Upper Hunza, only 3 projects in Lower
Hunza and 17 projects in Central Hunza. That means 44% of total projects have
been started or completed in Upper Hunza, 47% in Central Hunza and 8% in Lower
Hunza.
The bitter fact is that many of the above
projects are on paper only.
For instance, it has been claimed that 0.5
MW Hydro Project have been started or completed in Mayoon Nallah besides
expansion of Khizerabad to Khanabad road in Lower Hunza. But the harsh reality
is that we have never ever seen any power project in Mayoon. That’s why most of
the time we don’t have electricity in Mayoon like other parts of Lower Hunza.
Same is the case with this fictitious Khizrabad to Khanabad road. When I
visited Lower Hunza on October 2012, there was not even a pavement, let alone
road from Khizrabad to Khanabad due
to land sliding in Mayoon which
is situated between Khizrabad and Khanabad. And when I revisited this place on
November 2014, this road was still blocked even after the lapse of two years.
Because of this I had to spend 1700 rupees once to go to Hussainabad from
Mayoon in 2012. And in 2014 I had to spend 2200 rupees to return back to Mayoon
from Hussainabad in a private taxi. Otherwise, both these places are hardly two
to three kilometers away from each other. Similarly, the
collapse of Khizerabad RCC Bridge even
after spending more than a decade on its construction is also a living example
of bad governance and corruption of PPP and its legislators from GBLA-6 Hunza.
Due to incompletion of these projects, and blockade of road in Lower Hunza,
every year hundred thousands of rupees are being loose on account of
selling cash crops on lesser than market rate, let alone over
transportation and communication charges on a daily basis.
On the basis of aforementioned ground
realities, one can easily infer that most of these so called development
projects may exist only in files as nothing tangible is there to prove these
claims on the ground in Hunza.
In this backdrop, it has become very much
necessary for the people of Hunza to neutrality assess potential and manifesto
of contending candidates and select only those candidates who have any
integrity, ability, guts, along with capacity and track record of serving all
the three regions of Hunza as we have a lot on stake due to recently approved 46 billion dollar China Pakistan Economic
Corridor (CPEC) and evolving changes in our surrounding areas at
this time around.
In this regard, when we have a look on the
profiles of contending members from GBLA-6 Hunza, it comes to know that we have
Mr. Zafar Iqbal from PPP, Mir Ghazanfar from PML (N), Mr. Izhar
Hunzai from PTI and Mr. Baba Jan from Labour Party who are on the ground
for the only seat of GBLA-6 Hunza.
When we look on the performance of our
past representatives from GBLA-6 Hunza, they themselves accept that they have
been totally wasted
their four years in the government by using
public offices for personal gains. This rampant
corruption marred uplift projects in GB. Therefore, any an insane person or
a corrupt Jiala will support PPP and its candidate from GBLA-6.
Same is the case with PMLN and its
candidate Mir Ghazanfar Ali Khan. Out of the last 40 years,
Mir Ghazanfar remained at the helm of affairs for 25 years. But
unfortunately, he hasn’t done anything tangible which could give him an edge
over other contestants from GBLA-6 Hunza. He has power and good contacts along
with the brand name of “Mir of Hunza” which have never ever been used for the
benefit of the people of GB in general and Hunza in particular. A large number
of highly educated people in general and youth in particulate from Hunza are
roaming here and there in search of decent jobs, but he didn’t provide even a
single decent job or any kind of scholarship to anyone of our highly educated
youth from Hunza. Similarly, he never ever raised his voice for an additional
seat in GBLA just to maintain his dominance in the political arena of Hunza;
thus, deprived Hunza from a major chunk of potential share from the divisible
pool of developmental funds in GB Government. Furthermore, he had always been
interested in concentrating power within his family instead of empowering
common people of Hunza. During his tenure the Lower and Upper part of Hunza
have always been remained neglected and he only concentrated on the development
of Karimabad Hunza - his hometown.
Out of aforementioned contestant Mr. Baba
Jan is one of the best candidate because he is the one who have always been
standing up with all the people of Hunza for their rights, whether it is the
matter of Attaabad IDPs and their miseries, brutal killing of Sherullah
Baig and his son Sher Afzal during
CM Mehdi Shah’s Visit to Hunza or floor crisis or protection of human rights
and constitutional rights. He took stand on all principle matters for the
protection of our rights, but unfortunately our own representatives in GBLA
labeled him “anti – state element” and play their role in sending him along
with a number of other innocent youth from Hunza behind the bars.
Since a new and fast pace development is
taking place in our region on account of game-changing China Pakistan Economic
Corridor (CPEC) and evolving geopolitical scenario in our backyard. In this
backdrop, we needed someone who is highly educated, experienced and competent
enough to make SMART program to address our local issues locally and
well-represent Hunza at policy making forums to protect and promote our goals
in the Great Game between China and West. In this regard, the forthcoming five
years are very much crucial. Therefore, my conditional vote and support go to
comparatively less experienced, but the competent candidate of PTI from GBLA-6
Hunza. I request all other Hunzukutz to take informed decisions and select the
best of the best candidate among the contenders. I would also request all the
contenders to learn from the mistakes of our previous representatives and play
your due role for equal distribution of resources and give proper attention to
all the three regions of Hunza.
▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀
ALSO PUBLISHED IN:
.bmp&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F*)
No comments:
Post a Comment