The Voice for Change is Still a Dream

By Haq Nawaz Khan -

The People’s Primary Healthcare Initiative has drawn criticism from within and outside party ranks

The cricket legend-turned politician Imran Khan’s voice for change is still a dream. Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is in a coalition government with a lead role in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province for almost a year, but his government is under-fire from his own party members and not from the opposition in the province.

The government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) is being run by ‘Bani Gala’, the residence of Khan in Islamabad, and central leaders are reportedly interfering in the administration of the province is common belief of the political circles of Peshawar. This policy has also affected PTI members as it is an irritating factor and has often resulted in pick n choose policy exercised by the central leadership for choosing ministers and advisors of the provincial government in KPK.

The opposition parties are taking the PTI-led coalition government to the task on every front, criticizing it for its failure to improve law and order situation, eliminate corruption, development projects, governance and delay in the much awaited local bodies elections.

In these developments the most worrisome factor is the division within the ruling party – PTI in KPK, as many as 14 members of the assembly have publicly challenged their own government and party.

This is the group of like-minded MPAs or the forward bloc of the PTI in the KPK assembly, which emerged a few weeks ago. Members of the group have launched a campaign against the government and leveled some serious allegations on their party ministers and the central leaders of corruption, irregularities, nepotism and inefficiency.

Javed Naseem, a member of KP assembly from Peshawar, said in an interview, “We have some serious reservations and have conveyed to our chairman Imran Khan, our Provincial President Azam Swati and Provincial General Secretary Khalid Masood. They have agreed to our points and assured to sort out the solution.”

“Imran Khan has agreed 100 percent on the issues, we raised before him. We are hopeful that our concerns will be taken seriously. We will meet Khan sb again soon. This is wrong that we have some personal agenda or any demand of getting ministries or advisor-ships but we want to save our party image,” he clarified.

He said they have highlighted in the meetings with the party high command that some of our ministers are allegedly involved in ‘irregularities and malpractice’. “We have taken the vote to end corruption and provide justice, but some of our colleagues are going against our principled stance,” Naseem noted.

The unfair distribution of development funds in the constituencies and districts of the province is yet another challenge to the governance argued Mr Naseem. He said that ‘we have noted that some Ministers have been spending more than 150 million rupees worth of projects, but we the MPAs are getting only 20 million rupees as development fund?” Why this injustice and indifferent attitude, he asked.

Another source raised the anomaly that personnel from district Nowshera (the native district of the current chief Minister Pervaiz Khattaq) are given jobs, but these jobs are not for all. He said that, “we were voted to power in the province to do justice but that is not the case anymore”.

Mr. Javed Naseem said if ‘our demands are not considered seriously by our top leadership then we would devise our own future strategy. But our fight and struggle is for the rule of law and justice and to protect our party image.’ The party future is attached with our 14 members group and we will not let the party be discredited.

The 11-month rule of Imran Khan’s ‘Justice Party’ has been facing numerous challenges from within the party, the opposition and even from the civilian establishment. The reported tug of war between the Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and the recently replaced Chief Secretary Arbab Shehzad has become a serious issue particularly for the governance in the province, the latter was resisting the directives of the chief executive of the province, Pique was informed. The Chief Minister finally managed to convince the party leader Mr. Imran Khan and the Federal government to get rid of the erstwhile chief secretary, a tribute to his tireless efforts to stop corruption and nepotism in the province.

The KPK government has been in the news for the controversial schemes and steps taken by the KPK government particularly the polio campaign – Sehat Ka Insaf – and the government was criticized for this unclear program, the purpose and the funding received for this program.

The leading English daily Dawn reports, “serious questions have been raised over the source and spending of a still unspecified amount in the much publicized Sehat Ka Insaf  (health for all) program in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.”

“No one in the PTI-led provincial government appears to have a clue about the source and utilization of funds in health initiative. Sehat Ka Insaf was launched with fanfare, billboards in Peshawar and a massive media campaign. But it soon courted controversy and ANP MPA Sardar Hussain Babak posted a question in the provincial assembly, demanding its details, “ states the report.

According to the daily, “Background interviews with the officials in the health, finance and information departments drew a blank about the identity of the donors, amount of funds and spending mechanism.” Senior Finance Minister Sirajul Haq, belonging to PTI’s coalition partner Jamaat-i-Islami, sent “a letter to Health Minister Shaukat Yousafzai this week, seeking details about the program.”

Sardar Hussain Babak, the parliamentary leader of Awami National Party in the KPK assembly, said in a phone interview, that the Government led by PTI has made the health campaign like the polio campaign controversial.” “Polio vaccination is the duty of professional staff, but PTI gave it to its workers.”

The People’s Primary Healthcare Initiative (PPHI) — a brainchild of Jahangir Khan Tareen, now PTI’s secretary general, also invited criticism from within and outside of party ranks of the PTI. The issue was highlighted in the leading newspapers as something ‘fishy fishy’ casting deep shadows on the purpose context of the funding.

“The Jahangir Tareen linked PPHI is banned in the Centre, Punjab and Sindh but was given the contract here in our province,” Babak noted.

The PPHI project was funded from the ‘Multi-Donors Trust Fund’ essentially for the revitalization of primary and basic health units, but reports suggest that the funds were not properly used as they were planned.

Another English daily The News reports, “The project, “Revitalization and Strengthening the Health Services Delivery in Crisis Affected Districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa under Public Private Partnership” (RHSP), is supposed to help strengthen health delivery services in Lower Dir, Buner in the Malakand Division, Torghar, Kohistan and Batagram in Hazara Division and Dera Ismail Khan.”  However it is now being run to support foreign donors’ agendas, unknown to the local heath care departments.

“The KP government was supposed to receive US $25 million from MDTF but the amount was later reduced to US $16 million due to the inefficiency of the Health Department”. “The project effectiveness date was April 12, 2012, but due to the incompetence of the Health Department the MDTF slashed the remaining budget to $ 16 million,” the report cited an unnamed official of the Health Department.

According to the documents, the daily claims, “Under the section for the allocation of funding for the project, only a small amount was supposed to be spent on the development and repair of various Basic Health Units (BHUs) whereas the remaining amount was utilized on the purchase of luxury double cabin pickup trucks, cars, laptops and awarding expensive consultancy services.”

Sardar Babak criticized the PTI government for its failure to maintain law and order in the province resultantly businessmen and professionals are migrating from the province to other parts of the country.

The government is unmoved on this important issue of ‘brain-drain’ and ‘capital flight’ from theprovince. “Some 66-67 families have been moved to Punjab or abroad from this province in the recent months, which is very unfortunate,” he regretted.

Imran Khan’s soft corner for the militants has only encouraged them to the degree that every night 50-60 militants are patrolling in the outskirts of Peshawar and collecting extortion money through kidnapping people.

Some areas have become ‘ no go areas’ even for the police like Badhabher, Mashokhel, and Matanai etc. The provincial government of PTI and Jamaat-e-Islami are so scared of the growing influence of the militants that these threats and growing influence is not mentioned in passing to the negotiating committees of the government and the Taliban.

On the development side, Mr. Babak was disappointed and he stated that, “The last quarter of the current financial year 2013-14 is about to end but no mega projects or other development activities have been seen in the province.” “The development budget is lapsing but except the native district of the CM, no development work is taking place,” he added. He said the slogan of corruption has also failed to deliver, as there is no let up in the corruption in the province, which the PTI lawmakers themselves are highlighting. But the million-dollar question is how can corruption occur if there are no developmental projects?

He alleged that the recently passed law of vulnerable security was aimed at giving financial benefits to “Jehangir Tareen and co”, by forcing the business companies to install security cameras and walk-through gates. These gadgets will be imported from China and the vested interest group will make money. The KPK government and its leadership is likely to give monetary benefits to these select groups and are using direct and indirect fraudulent practices to support these actions.

The opposition parties are making efforts to become an on ground challenge to the ruling alliance in the upcoming local bodies polls. The three party alliances of PPP, ANP and Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam-Fazlur Rehman, has been formed recently across the province to make this a reality.

Maulana Shuja-ul-Mulk, a former parliamentarian and senior leader of the JUI-F, said PTI is delaying the local bodies polls as it has miserably failed to act on what it claimed during electioneering. “That was a slogan of change, but everything is the same or worst. There is a rise in street crimes, corruption and no development work at all. Imran Khan failed to meet his deadlines of 90 days for ending corruption and holding local bodies elections,” he noted.

Now it is clear, as PTI was mere a slogan and nothing else. Pervez Khattak, CM, has been leading the party who switched his loyalties and changed more than half a dozen parties. No one is satisfied from the PTI government and their own members and workers are worried.

However, some members of the PTI are countering the allegations leveled against their government and claim to have changed the culture in the province they state that, “we have introduced 28 bills in the KP assembly and passed 23 in the last 11 months, we have imposed education emergency in the province, ‘Sehat ka Insaf’ for polio and bills to support non interference in the police and local administration. These are great success stories,” media cell of KP stated.

Iftikhar Mashwani, a member of KP assembly from Takht Bai Mardan, said in an interview, “I am satisfied with our government’s performance. Though it is a difficult task to change our political culture but gradually now the workers and our voters are cooperating and understanding it.”

He said, “I have imposed a ban on ‘perchis’ to make transfers and postings in my localities.” Mashwani further added, “we have adopted a policy of not interfering in the posting and transfer of teachers, police officers and administrators but if someone is found inefficient or involved in corruption, we have to remove him.” I am not claiming that we have corrected everything but we are moving in the right direction and the people will see the results soon, he said.

The writer is a journalist based in Peshawar