LAHORE: Expressing the optimism that Pakistan would be soon out of all the challenges, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Saturday the country is set to move on the path of progress and development.
“There are economic challenges but the nation would have to decide whether they would live on foreign debts or to stand on its feet by carving a niche among the comity of nations with honesty, dedication and hard work,” the premier said while addressing a ceremony after reviewing the construction work on the six-lane overhead bridge of Imamia Colony railways crossing Shahdra N-5 on Saturday.
The Prime Minister said, “If the issue of load shedding, the scourge of terrorism could end, free medicines could be provided to the poor, road infrastructure could be laid, then surely, the country could move on the path of progress and prosperity.”
The Prime Minister said that those nations always achieved milestones that took lead with definite decisions over their future. The country was not created to move on debts and act like beggar because their forefathers and different generations had given sacrifices for the motherland, he added.
IMF has no excuse for delaying revival of loan programme: PM Shehbaz
Referring to the terms of International Monetary Fund (IMF) for seeking loan agreement, he said that they did every effort to implement them. Even, they sought bilateral financial support from the friendly nations including China that realized their problems and provided a rollover of $2 billion loan besides, returning back previous debt amount paid back by Pakistan. He also expressed his gratitude to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The UAE had committed a loan of $3 billion, he added. In this connection, he lauded the efforts of Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and the chief of army staff.
The ceremony was attended by Caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi, parliamentarians, Chief Secretary, National Highway Authority chairman and others.
Talking about inflation and price hike, he said no doubt, these had made the lives of ordinary people difficult, but the coalition government was cognizant of these affects.
Highlighting the development and uplift projects across Punjab province during Nawaz Sharif’s tenure, he said, some of the projects included the greater Iqbal park, metro bus service, cricket grounds, power projects to overcome 20 hours load shedding which was ended in 2018 and that was a huge achievement.
During 2018, he said through ‘a fraud and fake election’, polling results were rigged and the results were changed.
With such move, the development pace was snatched which also saw a height of corruption in the province during PTI’s government. He also criticized former Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Saqib Nisar for staying different projects in the province including the issue of 56 companies. He said in these proceedings, not a single penny of corruption was proved. The Orange line was a gift of China for the people of Lahore, he said, adding after a lengthy proceeding of 11-month over a case moved by PTI, the high court gave a clean chit. But the PTI people then took the issue to the Supreme Court, where the former Chief Justice delayed the decision for months, with clear intentions to cause harm to the PML-N and public uplift schemes. He also accused former Chief Justice Saqib Nisar of causing loss to PKLI and questioned what he was doing in the constituency of Shaikh Rashid.
Shehbaz said during his 12 years terms as the Chief Minister, he had provided flour to the people at subsidized rates, but for the first time in the country’s history, about 80 to 100 million people were being benefited from the free flour scheme for which Rs65 billion rupees were spent in the month of Ramazan alone.
About the construction of flyover, he said that one each flyover in Imamia colony was being completed by the federal government and the other at Shahdara by the provincial government. He said he had directed for completion of the work in three months.
He said the metro bus project from Shahdra would be expanded to Kala Shah Kaku, adding all these projects were meant for the public benefits.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister for Education and Professional Training Rana Tanveer Hussain said that during the last PTI government’s tenure, such like development schemes were halted causing irreparable loss. The construction of the project was approved and initiated by the PML-N government during 2017 and inaugurated by former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, he added.
Earlier, the Prime Minister was briefed by the authorities about the project. The PM directed the authorities to expedite the work and complete it in three months timeframe.
Moreover, the premier visited Shahdra hospital to review the medical facilities provided to the patients. The Prime Minister, accompanied by the relevant authorities, took round of different departments and inquired about the issues.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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