President Pervez Musharraf Saturday said the government is sincerely working for the welfare of the people and announced a number of development projects for Thar including full utilisation of coal reserves present in the area.
He was addressing a mammoth public meeting at Naukot Fort in the remote town of District Tharparkar where hundreds of thousands of people from Thar and other parts of Sindh gave standing ovation to the President when he entered the arena.
He said the government has been working hard to bring in European and Chinese companies to explore coal reserves of Thar and set up power generation plants using coal. This will benefit the people of Thar as well as the whole country, he noted.
The President, amid thunders of applause and slogans of "long live Pervez Musharraf, long live Pakistan" said he would bring about revolutionary development in the backward area of Sindh. President Musharraf said that previous governments were not sincere to undertake development projects in the less developed areas.
President General Pervez Musharraf warned the lawyers community to desist from using the reference against Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry for political gains and let the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) tackle the case in accordance with the law and the Constitution. He said some elements, particularly a group of lawyers were making a purely constitutional and judicial issue, a political issue.
He asked the people to beware of such elements, who are using the reference case against Justice Iftikhar for their personal and political interests and not to follow them. President Musharraf said: "It is purely a constitutional and judicial matter and let the Supreme Judicial Council decide the issue according to the Constitution."
He asked the lawyers not get political mileage of this issue and remain peaceful and avoid confrontation. The President said the people are conscious and would not be misled by the lawyers, who are using the reference case for political purposes. The mission of few lawyers, who want to get political benefit from the reference case, would not succeed, he added.
Paying tributes to the people of Thar and other parts of Sindh for according unprecedented welcome, Musharraf said he had never seen such a huge public meeting.
He especially mentioned the development projects in Thar including improvement of irrigation system through lining of distributaries and watercourses, expanding road network, construction of schools and drinking water supply network. President Musharraf said that entire Thar area would get electricity supply while railway link has been established upto the Indian border.
The President said 86,000 watercourses would be lined at a cost of Rs 12 billion in Sindh, besides the lining of 514 distributaries. President Musharraf while referring to large number of minorities in interior Sindh said that minorities were enjoying all rights as equal citizens. They are Pakistanis whether they are Hindus or Christians, he added.
The President said the government has worked a lot for the betterment of minorities and introduction of joint electorate system for them is one of the examples in this regard. President Musharraf asked the people of Thar to go for dairy and cattle farming to enhance their income and to contribute to government''s effort to promote a white revolution in the country.
The President said communication projects were being undertaken in Sindh, including M5 which was being doubled and two lanes were added to Super Highway between Karachi and Hyderabad. The President said that SSGC would be asked to broaden its pipeline network to Mirpurkhas and supply gas to Tharparkar. He said that natural gas and electricity would be provided to every tehsil and village.
President Musharraf said that ZTBL will write off loans up to Rs 0.1 million in Thar. He also announced to provide Rs 50 million to Nazim Tharparkar for development projects and the people responded with a thunder of applause and chanted slogans "Jiay Musharraf, Jiay Musharraf".
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