ISLAMABAD - After getting PML-N president re-elected unopposed yesterday, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, strongly criticising Imran Khan, alleged the PTI chief was practising politics of disruption and vowed to continue implementing his economic agenda for the collective good of the people.
Besides the prime minister, all the candidates re-elected unopposed on all the top 10 party slots. Raja Zafarul Haq bagged the office of the party chairman while Sartaj Aziz, Sikandar Hayat, Sir Anjam Khan, Sardar Yaqoob Khan Nasir, Changez Marri and Imdad Chandio were re-elected as senior vice presidents. Pervaiz Rashid was elected as secretary finance and Mushahid Ullah Khan as information secretary.
Without naming Imran Khan, Nawaz Sharif said the elements that were out to hamper the country’s march on road to progress and prosperity could not frighten him. He reiterated his resolve to rid the country of loadshedding by end of his government’s term in 2018.
The prime minister said they had brought about a remarkable improvement in the economy during the last over three years his government had put the country on the path of real progress and prosperity.
Again grilling the PTI and its politics of agitation, Sharif said, “Now people of Khybver-Pakhtunkhwa are looking for the man who had promised to give them a new Pakistan,” adding they should better look for him on a container as his party had no agenda except hampering the country’s journey to progress and prosperity.
Referring to the PTI plan of shutting down the federal capital, Nawaz Sharif remarked, “We will continue to construct roads, you keep on marching on roads.”
“There is a big difference between today’s Pakistan and that of 2013, when the country had reached the brink of economic collapse. There was acute energy shortage and terrorism was on the rise,” Nawaz Sharif.
The prime minister recounted the PML-N government’s achievements after 2013 and claimed power loadshedding had declined, economic indicators were positive and terrorism had been curbed to a large extent.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said owing to his government’s policies, the country’s economy had witnessed a remarkable improvement during the last over three years with foreign reserves reaching the historic level of US $ 24 billion from just around $ 3 billion in 2013.
Referring to the activities of his government’s political opponents, the prime minister said every era had witnessed some jugglers trying to befool the masses. “Even today, these elements are fooling the people and misleading them. But we are not afraid of them,” he remarked. The prime minister said, instead of serving the people of KP, they were spending their time on containers.
Nawaz Sharif said his party did not believe in blame game and accusations. “Our focus is on serving the people. Today’s Pakistan is changing and developing and it is being acknowledged in the world,” he averred.
He said Pakistan had been included in the list of fast growing countries and leading magazines were publishing positive articles about the country. The prime minister said Pakistan’s stock market had been included in the five fastest growing stock markets of the world.
He said the prices of petrol and diesel had also witnessed a significant decrease, adding the government was committed to ending power loadshedding by 2018.
He was all praise for China for helping Pakistan to check energy shortage and bringing in huge investment for setting up dozens of gas-based, coal-fired, wind, solar and atomic energy projects.
He claimed 10,000MW of electricity would be added to the national grid by 2018, adding his target was to add 30,000MW of electricity to meet the future energy requirements and the government was working on it.
He further said the prices of electricity for domestic consumers had also come down from Rs 18 per unit in 2013 to Rs 10 per unit at present and his effort was to bring it down to Rs 7 per unit by the next years.
The prime minister was confident that due to his government’s performance, the PML-N would win the 2018 elections in all the provinces, including KP.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said coal-fired power projects of 4,000MW were being set up in Thar area of Sindh, which could bring the electricity price to Rs 4 to Rs 5 per unit.
Similarly, the prime minister said, a network of roads and highways was being established in Balochistan and KP, connecting Gwadar with Khunjerab under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), he added.
He affirmed roads having length about 1000km were being built only in the province of Balochistan and 80 percent work on various roads projects in the province had been completed.
The prime minister also lauded the efforts and sacrifices of the personnel of armed forces, police and other law-enforcement agencies in tackling the menace of terrorism across the country.
He said the government intended to spend $ 5.5 billion on improving the country’s railway system which would upgrade the speed of trains from the current 80km per hour to a maximum of 160km per hour, reducing the travel time between Karachi and Islamabad from 24 to 15 hours.