ISLAMABAD: Criticising Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) over its call to shut the federal capital down, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said that the masses were done being befooled and would not even turn up for the siege.
“Every era has witnessed some jugglers trying to befool the masses. Even today, these elements are befooling the people, misleading the masses and indulging in humiliation of people. But we are not afraid of them,” he said while addressing party workers and leaders after his unopposed election as party president by the PML-N Central Council.
Instead of serving the people of a province, where they had the mandate, they were spending their time on containers, the premier said. “Today, the people of KP (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) are looking for the man who had promised them a new Pakistan.” Referring to the rallies of the political party, the premier said it had to struggle for months to gather the people for a public meeting. “We will continue to construct roads, you keep on marching on roads.” He was confident that due to his government’s performance, the PML-N would again win the 2018 election and form government in KP as well.
Nawaz said his party did not believe in blame-games and hurling accusations. “Our focus is on serving the people. Today’s Pakistan is changing and developing, and it is being acknowledged by the world.”
Nawaz said that with remarkable improvement brought about in every segment of life and economy during the last three years or so, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government had put the country on the path of real progress and prosperity.
“There is huge difference in today’s Pakistan and that of 2013, when the country had come on the brink of an economic collapse. There was an acute shortage of energy in the country, and terrorism was on the rise,” Nawaz Sharif said.
The premier recounted the PML-N government’s achievements since its term started in 2013, and said that power load shedding had lessened and economic indicators were positive, while terrorism had been curbed to a great extent.
Owing to the government’s policies, the economy had witnessed a remarkable improvement during the last three years, with forex reserves reaching the historic level of $24 billion from $3 billion in 2013, he said. He said that Pakistan had been included in the list of fast-growing countries and leading magazines were publishing positive articles about Pakistan.
The premier said that Pakistan’s stock market had been included in the five fastest-growing stock markets of the world. He said that due to his government’s prudent economic policies, inflation was under control and prices of essential commodities like onions, potatoes and other vegetables were very low as compared to 2013. He said the prices of petrol and diesel had also witnessed a significant decrease, adding that the government was committed to ending power load shedding by 2018.
Nawaz was highly appreciative of China for helping Pakistan check the energy shortage and bringing in huge investment for setting up dozens of power projects, including gas-based, coal-fired, wind, solar and atomic energy projects.
He said that 10,000 megawatts of electricity would be added to the national grid by 2018, adding that his target was to add 30,000MW electricity to meet the future energy requirements, and the government was working on it.
He further said the price 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 to Rs 8 per unit in the near future.
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