MULTAN - Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal has said Parvez Musharraf will acknowledge independence of the Supreme Court if he is sent to Adiala Jail.
Talking to journalists here on Saturday, he added Parvez Musharraf was the biggest contempt of court culprit, but he was allowed to go scot-free. “Sending ordinary workers behind bars will not increase respect of the court; it will increase when criminals like Pervez Musharraf are sent to jail,” he averred. He said it was not just the PML-N that expressed reservations over the disqualification of Nawaz Sharif. The entire world had reservations on this decision, he stated. He said if expressing reservations was contempt of court, the entire nation that reached GT Road to welcome Nawaz Sharif had committed this crime. He affirmed eminent lawyers had also expressed their reservations over the SC decision of disqualification on national news channels. Ahsan Iqbal said Pervez Musharraf should have been punished for his crimes before summoning Talal Chaudhry in contempt case, but the Supreme Court of Pakistan was unable to punish the former dictator.
He was of the view that respect for the judiciary should prevail among the masses, but if just PML-N was targeted, the people would consider it a pre-poll rigging.
He said: “The CPEC was mere a piece of paper till July 2013, but now it has turned into reality with projects worth billions of dollars.” He added the CPEC projects were being completed even faster than the time limit fixed for their completion. He claimed the country would soon achieve six percent GDP growth target. He added the investment made during last four years was bigger than that made in 70 years. He said the country’s progress had stopped before 2013 and the new government had to face multiple challenges like law and order, national stability and sinking economy. “Today Pakistan has become an emerging economy in the world,” he added.
He announced all motorway projects would be completed till 2019 and they would play the role of backbone of the national economy by linking the entire country from Karachi to Peshawar. He added Multan-Sukkur Motorway project would connect South Punjab and Sindh while these road projects would link Pakistan to China and Central Asia. He disclosed Multan-Sukkur Motorway which was 400km long would be completed at a cost of Rs 300 billion. He declared Multan-Shujabad and Sukkur-Ghotki sections would be completed before May 15 and the remaining sections before the end of the current year.
Ahsan Iqbal said just 500-km-long motorways were constructed before 2013 whereas length of the motorways being constructed by the current regime was over 1,600km. “With the completion of this road network, total length of our motorways will become 2,200km while our neighbouring country has just 1,400-km-long motorways,” he pointed out.
The minister said Pakistan was playing a leadership role in the region in road infrastructure development. He claimed the government had produced 11,000MW electricity, which was a national record.
He announced Nawaz Sharif was the PML-N president and everyone in the party was accepting his decisions. He added everyone had agreed with the PML-N chief regarding nomination of Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as the prime minister of Pakistan. He stated Pakistan would be among the top economies of the world if peace and stability were promoted and chaos was controlled in the country.