LAHORE - Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said Rs112 billion has been saved by ensuring transparency in 3,600 megawatt gas-based projects and it is sanguine that these projects have been completed in record time.

Electricity produced by gas-based projects is being supplied to consumers on low rates, the chief minister said while talking to a delegation of PML-N representatives here on Monday. He said the world had acknowledged the speed with which energy projects had been completed during the last four years. He said the Pakistani nation would always remember efforts of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz to address the energy crisis. “The 1320-megawatt Sahiwal Coal Power Plant has been completed in 22 months. Nowhere in the world an energy project of this capacity has been completed in such a short span of time. Such projects are not completed in 22 months even in China. There is no doubt that a world-record has been set with regard to speedy completion of energy projects,” he said.

The chief minister said the incumbent government had spent national resources on public welfare in a very transparent manner. Contrary to it, the past rulers had set records of corruption in their tenures, he said. Look how people who grabbed lands and got their loans worth billions of rupees written off are making a hue and cry against corruption, he said. Those levelling baseless allegations should first look at their corrupt past, he said, adding that people knew that allegations of defeated elements were just a pack of lies. He said the country was facing the worst power loadshedding when the PML-N came into power. He said darkness of poverty and unemployment were gifts of past rulers. He said corrupt rulers of the past filled their pockets by plundering national resources but paid no attention to energy crisis. He said that Nandipur Power Plant was a victim of lust for money of such looters. Had the past rulers paid attention to the energy crisis instead of plundering the resources, the country would not have succumbed to darkness of loadshedding.

On one side there are past rulers who plundered the resources and on the other side there are elements who are adding to problems of the nation with their negative politics. He said the nation would never forgive the elements who impeded the journey of development and made the country hostage to darkness. He said that a cruel game had been played with the economy of the country. The elements playing with the destiny of the nation does not want national development and prosperity, he said.

He said the PML-N government had ensured most transparent and honest use of every penny of the nation. He said the PML-N government had succeeded in the court of people by fulfilling the commitments made in 2013. It will achieve success in the elections of 2018 with a new vision of public service, he added.