Prime Minister Pakistan will inaugurate the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Metro Bus Project within 48 hrs in the next coming days, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif
BY;ASGHAR ALI MUBARAK
BY;ASGHAR ALI MUBARAK
Rawalpindi-Islamabad:
Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on other day announced that the prime minister Pakistan Mian Nawaz Sharif will inaugurate the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Metro Bus Project within 48 hrs in the next coming days
Nearly 125 senior journalists, writers, ankers ,columnist from across the country were invited by the federal information ministry to visit the site and were later briefed on the project followed by a lavish lunch at the Punjab House.Later, addressing a news conference, Sharif said “It’s a national project as people belonging to all four provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan and AJK are living in Islamabad and Rawalpindi and they will benefit from it,” Sharif said, adding though the project was delayed beyond its original deadline, it was still completed in ‘record time’. He said the project was completed within the approved cost and all service and other contracts were awarded following competitive bidding. To a question that the bus’ route does not cover thickly populated areas of the twin cities, Sharif informed that the route was selected following feasibility study for a mass transit system for the twin cities conducted by Nespak. He said as per the study, nearly 130,000 people daily travel on that route.He said those who were opposing the project live in ‘a fool’s paradise’ as the project would provide state-of-the-art and international standard transportation service to the public. The chief minister said despite opposition from various political parties, the PML-N government would continue to ‘serve masses as per the vision of Pakistan’s founders’. He said to make the project a success; new routes would soon be introduced to support the metro bus. To a question that buses stations made up of glass would be vulnerable to any protest gathering or mobs, the chief minister said the project itself would anguish the deep public anger as it would bring an end to travelling-related miseries of poor people. The CM was asked if the project would benefit the government in the upcoming local bodies’ polls, he said it was not so as the people of Pakistan had already given PML-N the mandate to take decisions in their greater interest in the 2013 general elections.Regarding reports that the PML-N government ignores chief ministers of other provinces while making important visits abroad, Sharif said during the last government of PPP, he was never included in foreign delegations but he never complained about it.At the event, the media was informed that the federal government would bear Rs3 billion — the cost of the Peshawar Morr interchange of the project while the remaining cost would be shared on a 50:50 basis between the Punjab and federal governments.Several politicians, government officials, local students and journalists travelled between the Pak-Secretariat and Saddar stations on the metro bus as well. Sharif said the project was delayed by six months due to the sit-ins by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and Pakistan Awami Tehreek in Islamabad. Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said that Rawalpindi-Islamabad Metro Bus Service (MBS) project is completed now. he said that those who were criticizing MBS project would be hiding their faces after its inauguration and a large number of citizens of twin cities, Rawalpindi-Islamabad would soon be benefiting from this modern bus service. The CM inspected the project without any protocol and reviewed its entire route from metro bus. He said that it was his desire that MBS facility should be available for the citizens of the twin cities at the earliest, therefore, speedy completion of the remaining work was being ensured. The CM said that the government was making all out efforts to facilitate the citizens. He said, no compromise would be made on the standard of construction work.Sharif said that he was personally monitoring the project. He said that the people would be provided respectable and comfortable transport facilities in every city. The Chief Minister said that Rawalpindi-Islamabad MBS project was started aimed at benefiting laborers, workers, doctors, government servants, students, working women and low-income people and it was a masterpiece of quality and transparency. He said that the people of Rawalpindi-Islamabad had shown extreme patience during construction work of the project and faced various problems for which he paid tributes to traders, students, employees and all the citizens. Shahbaz Sharif said that the glorious journey of metro project which was started from Lahore was continuing successfully and soon citizens of the twin cities would receive the splendid gift of metro bus.
He said that foundation of a new culture was being laid through metro bus projects and it would prove to be a milestone in modernizing transport system.
ABOUT; CM PUNJAB.
Mian Shahbaz Sharif is born on September 23, 1951. He is a chief minister of Punjab Province of Pakistan. Most of people in Pakistan know him as a reformer due the fact that he has changed the shape of Punjab and developed it according to modern standards. He is the brother of Nawaz Sharif, Prime Minister of Pakistan. He was the chief minister of Pakistan’s most populous province Punjab from 2008 to 2013. Previously, he held this position from 1997 to 1999, when Pervez Musharraf toppled the government in “coup d’état”. He, along with his entire family, was sent to exile to Saudi Arabia. The entire family returned back to Pakistan in 2007.
He was elected to the Punjab Assembly in 1988 elections and National Assembly in 1990. He was again elected to the Punjab Assembly in 1993 and was named leader of the opposition in the house when Manzoor Wattoo was the chief minister of Punjab. After his election to the Punjab Assembly for the third time in 1997 elections, Shahbaz Sharif was elected leader of the house and sworn in as the chief minister of Punjab on February 20, 1997.
He held the office till October 12, 1999 when the military under staged a coup under General Pervez Musharraf and toppled the government of his brother. He was arrested from the Prime Minister in Islamabad along with his brother. As the chief executive of the Punjab province, he was known as a strict disciplinarian. During his tenure, he tried to eliminate the culture of bureaucratic hurdles in the uplift process and focused on health, education, agriculture and industrial sectors. He launched a successful operation against ghost schools by involving army.
He also took action against use of illegal means in examinations across the province. The entry test and self-finance systems in medical colleges were introduced during his tenure as the Punjab chief minister. He never compromised on quality of work in development sector and several projects in Lahore are a proof of his commitment in this regard. Even his opponents described as the best administrator the Punjab ever has. Exiled to Saudi Arabia along with the whole Sharif family on December 20, 2000, he was elected unopposed as president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on August 3, 2002.
He spent two years in Saudi Arabia and then moved to the United States for medical treatment and instead of returning to Jeddah, where his family was staying, he went to London. He attempted to come back to Pakistan on May 11, 2004 but was again deported to Saudi Arabia within a few hours. He was re-elected as PML-N president for second term on August 2, 2006. He was once considered a strong future candidate for office of the prime minister of Pakistan.
He represented Pakistan at various international forums including the United Nations, where his views and speaking powers were appreciated. His keynote speech at the International Labour Conference held in Geneva in 1981 was praised by the worker associations, activists and democratic people around the world. He returned to Pakistan along with other family members on November 25, 2007 and landed at the Allama Iqbal Airport in Lahore.
