SAHIWAL - Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif yesterday said his government’s performance would wash away all the baseless allegations of the opposition, which was impeding nothing but the country’s progress

These views were expressed by the prime minister while inaugurating the first unit of 660MW Sahiwal Coal-Fired Power Project at Qadirabad, which will reach its actual capacity of 1,320MW in June 2017.

“My opponents are not attempting to foil me; they are attempting to obstruct the country’s progress, but we will not allow them to affect our pace. People will distinguish between the negative and corrupt elements and those who are delivering,” he said

The PM announced bonus equal to one-month salary for all Chinese and Pakistani engineers and workers who completed the plant in record 22 months with tireless efforts. He criticised the previous government which did not give priority to mega projects and national money was wasted by reframing their feasibilities and increasing their actual cost again and again.

While referring to Lahore-Islamabad Motorway, he said at that time it was Rs 21 billion project, but now it has gone to Rs 300 billion. Without naming PTI, the PM said levelling allegations could not bring efficiency in governance. He questioned how a corrupt government could complete a project six months ahead of its scheduled time.

Earlier, the prime minister visited different parts of the power plant, including its warehouse shed for coal stock and its transportation to the main plant. He also inspected the plant control and operational room and met with Chinese and Pakistani engineers, technicians and workers. Reportedly, around 190 Pakistani engineers have been trained by the Chinese company for Sahiwal Coal-Fired Power Project.

Those who accompanied the PM included Punjab Governor Rafiq Rajwana, Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Ambassador of China to Pakistan Sun Weidong, Federal Minster for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafiq, State Minister for Power and Water Abid Sher Ali, high-ups from the Chinese companies and power consortium, local parliamentarians and others. Local journalists were not issued invitation cards and all 1,000 guest cards were distributed among dignitaries by the Punjab chief secretary office.

Nawaz Sharif told the charged gathering that he had no time to respond to the unfounded accusations of the opposition; rather he had left it to the people to decide as all his focus would be on the people’s uplift.

“Now, work on the development projects has started and will not stop,” the prime minister expressed his resolve amid the slogans of ‘Dekho Dekho Kaun Aya, Sher Aya, Sher Aya’ raised by the crowd.

He said the government had planned to allocate a record budget for development works in next fiscal year as the people would listen to Finance Minister Ishaq Dar delivering the annual budget speech in the National Assembly on Friday.

Lauding the successful execution of the power project in just 22 months, he said it was unprecedented in the country’s history. “This is Punjab speed. This is the PML-N speed. Hats off to you, Shehbaz Sharif, You called me hero, you are hero yourself,” the prime minister remarked, highly acknowledging the services of the Punjab chief minister and his team.

Prime Minister Sharif lauded the services of the Chinese ambassador in the implementation of the CPEC. He said it was encouraging to see Pakistani youngsters serving at the project with their Chinese counterparts in different capacities. He also appreciated Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafiq for extending the railway line to the project site for transportation of coal.

He said his government had inherited three challenges — energy crisis, extremism and terrorism and revival of the economy – all of which had been tackled prudently. “We have dismantled terrorists’ network. We will not rest until the last terrorist is eliminated. The economy has started doing well and is turning around. During the current fiscal year, we will achieve 5.3 percent growth rate which stood at 3.7 percent in 2013. We expect to achieve six percent growth by next year that will go up to seven percent in two years,” the prime minister remarked.

He said the power crisis was getting over as the government would be adding around 10,000MW to the national grid by 2018 to bring an end to the loadshedding.

He told the gathering that the government was providing uninterrupted power and gas supply to industries and reiterated his government’s resolve that there would be no loadshedding by next year.

He said besides ensuring sufficient power generation, the government was also striving to bring the power tariff down to facilitate the domestic consumers.

He said under the CPEC, not only the power plants were being installed but also roads and motorways were being constructed from Khunjrab to Gwadar besides developing Gwadar Port.

Even in the opposition-led Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, the PML-N government was constructing roads and motorways like Hazara Motorway that would be linked to Muzaffarabad and Mirpur.

Mentioning different motorways being built across the country, the prime minister said by 2019, Peshawar would be linked to Karachi by a six-lane motorway.

The previous governments failed to expand the network and even the said motorway was also overhauled by the present government. He urged the people to question the previous governments for their failure to expand motorways, develop Gwadar Port, stop the closure of industry and allow the power crisis to swell.

He hoped Pakistan would continue growing and illiteracy would come to an end. Hospitals and colleges would be built and if the pace continues, Pakistan would become a real power and no power could stop the country to become an Asian tiger, he remarked.

 

 

 

Govt performance to wash away Opp allegations: PM

 

OUR STAFF REPORTER/APP