LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif responded to PPP president Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s debate challenge on Sunday by stating that a comparison between Karachi and Lahore has been made after intense rain caused urban flooding in the port city.
During a news conference in Lahore, Shehbaz stated that Karachi’s post-rain situation “portrayed a picture of ruins” on Saturday night. She was accompanied by PML-N leaders Marriyum Aurangzeb, Ishaq Dar, and Azma Bokhari.
Thunder and lightning along with a lot of rain caused havoc in some areas of Karachi on Saturday night when precipitation combined with sewage spilling from blocked pipes into homes and hospitals in the port metropolis.
Even though the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) had predicted heavy rain a day earlier, the city administration had not taken any action to deal with the rain, so after it rained, major arteries in the megacity were flooded with rainwater and commuters were stuck in their cars.
The former prime minister responded to Bilawal’s repeated challenges to the PML-N leadership for a debate, stating that Bilawal had been requesting one for weeks and that performance comparisons should be made rather than debates.
“A day ago comparison had been drawn as mothers and sisters waded through knee-high rainwater and vehicles got stuck in pools of water,” the former prime minister continued.
“In Karachi, water is supplied via tankers, whereas in Lahore, water tankers clean the roads,” he remarked, alluding to the lack of water in the capital city of Sindh.
He remarked that because the future of the children depended on the results, people will express their choices at the polls.
PPP Chairman Bilawal had called PML-N chief Nawaz Shairf a “coward” the day before for ducking the debate in which he had asked Nawaz to compare the performance of the PPP and the PML-N.
“Knowing they haven’t done anything, they are afraid. On Nawaz’s hometown, Bilawal had stated, “They are pressuring the caretaker government to send Form 45 to Raiwand.”
Shehbaz cited the latest Transparency International (TI) report during the press conference today and gave credit to all 13 political parties from the previous coalition government that represented the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) for raising the nation’s standing on the global corruption index.
According to Shehbaz, there was a direct connection between the Transparency International report and the election and aftermath.
The thief’s identity was proven by the TI report, he claimed. He continued, “The corruption index increased to 140 during the PTI’s tenure.”
Under the PDM-led administration in 2023, Pakistan’s standing on the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) improved.
The improvement in ranking indicates that, in contrast to his adversary Imran Khan’s 2018–2022 rule, the threat of corruption diminished during the brief Shehbaz Sharif-led government.
