BHIKKI - Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Wednesday urged his political opponents not to indulge in the blame game, otherwise they would end up in oblivion and the people would only remember Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz for its service to them.
Addressing a gathering after inaugurating the operationalisation of the first phase of Bhikki power plant, adding 717MW to the national grid, Nawaz said, “The newcomers in politics can only lie, do sit-ins, level baseless allegations and make tall claims.”
“Fear Allah, stop politics of allegations, otherwise you will vanish into oblivion and in the end only PML-N will be in the fore,” Nawaz said.
He said despite their efforts, they had failed to win the hearts of the people and mentioned the defeat of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) candidate in a by-election yesterday. “We had won with the margin of 8,000 votes in 2013 general elections, but yesterday we won with over 22,000 votes, despite the fact that all other political forces backed the PTI candidate,” h0e said.
He was also critical of the previous PPP government over its ‘failure’ to address the serious issue of power outages and said those who were responsible for the current loadshedding were today threatening to lodge protest.
“You must be ashamed of yourself. Had you considered Pakistan your own country and served the nation with honesty and dedication, we would not have faced such a bad situation,” he said.
He said Balochistan was abandoned by the previous governments and now several development projects were near fruition there. He regretted the previous governments never bothered to undertake any development project in the province.
He said the federal government was undertaking several development projects in Karachi and Sindh, despite the fact that it was provincial responsibility.
The prime minister asserted there was no such tendency in the country to complete such large projects in a short span of 18 months. Operationalisation of Bhikki plant in 18 months was a new chapter in the country’s history of progress and prosperity, he added.
He said there had been a trend in the past to complete a project costing Rs 10 billion in Rs 100 billion and mentioned delays in completion of Lowari Tunnel, Nandipur and Neelum-Jhelum.
“Had Shehbaz Sharif not taken personal interest and not monitored the project, the cost would have escalated,” he said and referred to Haveli Bahadur and Balloki projects where the savings were to the tune of Rs 154 billion.
The prime minister said the delay in Haveli Bahadur Shah and Balloki projects was due to delay in shipment of turbines and all efforts were being made to complete them in time. Every month a new project would be inaugurated, he added.
He affirmed 315MW Chashma would be operational in May while many others were in the pipeline. Several projects would be completing by next year and around 10,000MW would be available by June next year.
Nawaz Sharif revealed the Punjab government had spent from its own resources on Haveli Bahadur Shah, Balloki and Bhikki projects.
He said strict action would be taken against those responsible for the current loadshedding.
He said there had been a seven percent increase in the demand of electricity against four percent in the past. The country was moving ahead at a fast pace as was evident from the growing demand, he contended.
He said Bhasha and Dasu dams would be completed in next few years, adding 9,000MW to the system.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif termed the completion of the gas power plant in 18 months a record and said the government had saved a huge amount of Rs 50 billion owing to a transparent bidding. The plant would provide power at the cheapest rate of Rs 7.37 per unit, he added.
He said apart from power generation projects, his government was working on road-building projects and referred to efforts for completion of the motorway from Karachi to Peshawar by 2020.
He said Rs 1,000 billion was being spent on road-building projects alone across the country. New airports and other projects were also being built. There had been a marked improvement in the working of the railways, while a new airport was being constructed for Islamabad.
The prime minister was accompanied by Punjab Governor Muhammad Rafique Rajwana, Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Water and Power Minister Khawaja Asif, Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Minister of State Abid Sher Ali, Chinese Ambassador Sun Weidong and provincial ministers.
Earlier, the prime minister inaugurated the Bhikki power plant which will add 717MW to the national grid.