PML-N, PPP will face worst-ever defeat in AJK polls: Farrukh

ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib on Thursday said the people of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) would bring the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) into power by rejecting the ‘lies and hollow claims’ of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leaders. “Both the parties foresee their defeat in the AJK upcoming elections as they not only failed to field strong candidates, but also lack popular support there,” he said in a televised news conference.
He said both the parties had faced the ‘worst-ever’ defeat in the Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) elections for making ‘false’ claims, and the outcome of AJK polls would also not be different. The minister said the Federal Government allocated record funds for the GB
in the Public Sector Development Programme 2021- 22 after the area people gave heavy mandate to the PTI at the hustings. Similarly, he said, the AJK would also have a PTI man as prime minister, eventually marking a new era of development with creation of massive job opportunities and improved infrastructure.
Prime Minister Imran Khan, he said, would come up to the expectations of AJK people, who knew that he was the only leader having the capability to present their case before the world in a befitting manner.
Imran Khan had already been playing a role of ‘true advocate’ for the Kashmiris at international level. Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib expressed confidence that the greater Karachi water supply scheme (K-IV) would be completed by October 2023. Addressing the contract signing ceremony for hiring consultancy services of a foreign company for K-IV here, he said the project was crucial to resolving water woes of Karachi’s dwellers that had been facing shortage of 650 million gallons of water on regular basis. He added that the initiative would provide a great deal in purging Karachities of ‘tanker mafia’ which had been exploiting them for the last several decades. The minister said Prime Minister Imran Khan, under the Karachi transformation plan, had tasked the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) with execution of
the K-IV project.
“The WAPDA has unchallenged capacity as it has not only been maintaining and running the old dams, but also working on new [water] projects,” he stressed while pointing out growing trust of the foreign investors on the Authority.
The foreign investors were showing keen interest in its projects’ funding, which reflected the ‘unchallenged capacity’ of the WAPDA, he noted. Chiding the Sindh government over delay in project’s execution, Farrukh said the project had been in limbo for the last several years due to incompetency, negligence and incapability of the PPP leadership.