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Imran Khan has given chief minister Nitish Kumar a reason to smile at a time when the Maharajganj bypoll defeat must be weighing heavy on his mind.
The cricketer-turned-Pakistan-politician has said he would emulate the Nitish model of governance in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province where his party, the Tehreek-e-Insaaf, formed the government recently.
Imran Khan recently said that he wanted to depoliticise the bureaucracy and the police force as Bihar had done. He also asked the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) government to focus on transparency, health and education as Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has done.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Nitish thanked Imran Khan for acknowledging his “development with justice” formula. “Now, Bihar model is being implemented in foreign countries,” Nitish said.
The Bihar chief minister recalled his visit to Pakistan and how, when meeting Imran Khan, the cricketer-turned-politician had called all his leaders for an interactive session with him.
“We had a long interactive session and they asked me many questions about how a backward state like Bihar had made it to the road of development. I explained the programmes and schemes we had implemented,” Kumar recalled. He expressed happiness that the Bihar model was to be implemented in a state inflicted by terrorism. “Our development with justice model had prompted people of other backward states to remark that if Bihar can do it why can’t they,” he said.
Even before the Bihar CM led a delegation to Pakistan last November, Imran Khan had expressed his admiration for the work done by Nitish Kumar’s government.
Nitish, during his weeklong visit to Pakistan, had met all prominent politicians, including Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari.
On his return, he wrote letters to all of them inviting them to visit Bihar.