I want to appreciate Shahbaz Sharif - (Metro Bus)

[kakaballi]

Re: I want to appreciate Shahbaz Sharif - (Metro Bus)

@khoji

That is not what I said. You are reading between the lines.

I did not say that government should not FUND infrastructure projects. I said government should not RUN infrastructure projects. That is, there should not be government intervention or subsidy. Rather a project should be financially feasible enough to run itself without any help. Otherwise it will become a liability sooner or later…

You are changing your stance. Why don’t you apply the same logic to government running hospitals, schools, universities and so forth?

Transport projects are almost always subsidized by governments. In any case, this project would not be RUN directly by the government. The operators, I believe, are private parties who would get subsidy. There is an independent authority like in almost all countries which would oversee it.

You could argue that we cannot afford to subsidize this one. You could argue that education and health should get priority over infrastructure. You could argue that it is not wise to spend all that money on ONE city. I accept all that. Please do not argue that it is not the responsibility of the government to run infrastructure projects. Highways, tunnels, bridges, rail systems, rapid transport systems in all countries are almost always funded and either operated or subsidized by the government. Just as an example, the government owns more than 75% shares in the rapid rail system in the most capitalistic city in Asia, Hong Kong, and it is still heavily subsidized by the government.

It is a system where, in theory, tax money collected form the rich is spent for the benefit for not-so-rich segment of the society.