Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday said his government was corruption-free and has not been tainted in even a single scandal of financial bungling as transparency in all projects was its hallmark since 2013. He was addressing a gathering here after witnessing the breakthrough ceremony of Right Head-race tunnel of Neelum Jhelum project marking completion of the 68-kilometer long tunnels system. The event marked a major milestone towards completion of the strategically important 969MW Neelum Jhelum Hydropower Project.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif came down heavily on the opposition for pursuing a policy of mud slinging, "negative politics" and hampering country's march towards progress and development and said it was only during the tenure of PML-N governments that the country moved ahead.
Sharif who was visiting the project for the fourth time, said ridding the country of power outages was his earnest desire. He regretted that some people today were protesting against power outages, while it were they who were responsible for the present state of affairs.
Without naming anyone and in an apparent reference to the recent protest by the Pakistan Peoples Party in Lahore against loadshedding, the Prime Minister said, "People are sick of you, for abusing the government daily, for using dirty language, and for something for which you are responsible." Sharif recalled that the people were apprehensive that Pakistan might default by year 2012, however said that owing to the sincerity of his team and hard work, things have completely changed.
He said gone were the days when the country witnessed 18 hours long loadshedding and the economy was about to collapse. "We have not indulged in politics of confrontation, backbiting and mud slinging and due to this reason, we have taken the country forward on path of progress and prosperity," the PM said.
The PM said the country was witnessing a revolution and added that 68 km long tunnel through a difficult terrain has been completed and termed it an unusual feat. He said the project was a victim of delays and poor planning in the past and said had his government not taken interest, this would have lingered for years to come. He said no previous government had any interest, or sense of responsibility towards completing this task.
He said the project, one of the many, was part of his government's commitment to end the curse of loadshedding from the country. The Prime Minister said after the power project in Bhikki, Baloki, Sahiwal and Port Qasim, were near completion. He questioned why no other government in the past thought of inter connecting the country with a network of high quality six lane roads.
He also mentioned the growing foreign investments, improvement in law and order situation, particularly in Karachi, improved rankings by international rating agencies, the best performing stock market, as some of his government's achievements. The Prime Minister said every month new power projects would come on line and mentioned the Thar Coal and Sahiwal projects that were nearing completion. He said by early next year 10,000 MW would be added to the system, equivalent to the power added in past 70 years. The Prime Minister expressed satisfaction over the pace of progress in the power projects and said more electricity would bring in more employment opportunities and boost industrialisation and productivity.
Earlier the Prime Minister witnessed the breakthrough of the Right Headrace Tunnel by the second Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM). He was accompanied by President AJK Sardar Masood Khan, Prime Minister AJK Raja Farooq Haider, Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Minister of State for power Abid Sher Ali and parliamentarians. A documentary detailing various phases of the project was also shown. About 92 percent construction work has been completed on the project, involving extensive tunnel work in one of the hardest terrain's.
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