Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Wednesday said his government was building the real new Pakistan and taking all steps to make it an "Asian Tiger". He while inspecting progress on the M3 Section said, he was pleased to note the pace of construction and its high quality. He said his government was undertaking a series of projects across the country including many in Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
He said in next few years, Pakistan would emerge as a strong economy and power of the region. He said Pakistan would be the new "Asian Tiger" and connect the entire country with all the regional countries. "This is the Pakistan of 21st century and this is called the new Pakistan," the Prime Minister Sharif said.
He lashed out at the opposition saying his government would continue to march ahead on the path of progress and prosperity by undertaking huge development projects. "We were neither afraid of them in the past, nor would be frightened in the future. The people of Pakistan now look forward to us and not towards them, as their future is with us."
He invited the opposition to visit the network of roads and motorways and asked them to at least acknowledge the good work being done by the government. He said criticism on anything was easy, but it required guts to admit the good work and its benefits for the masses. The prime minister said that around 50,000 workers were deployed on the project and said similarly hundreds and thousands were working on other projects across the country.He said the motorway would soon link Peshawar to Karachi with a six-lane high quality road.
He said no country in the region could boast such a road network and said if it was because the Allah Almighty was compassionate. "If Allah is benevolent to someone, then no one can do anything about it," the prime minister said. This would be unfair if these hard working labourers are denied employment opportunities. He said the Gwadar Port would be connected to China and allow rapid transportation of goods.
He said earlier such projects used to lag for decades, but today, things had changed and now the entire length of motorways complete in mere two years. Now these roads had quality and long life and would last for several years. The prime minister said the PML-N government was reconstructing the Lahore-Islamabad Motorway and would serve the nation for several decades and said today the worth of the asset has risen from mere Rs 25 billion to Rs 500 billion. He said the worth of the national assets was multiplying rapidly. He said after his forced ouster in 1999, not even a single large development project was undertaken.
"Terrorism was rife, lives of the people were at stake, but today peace is returning to the cities and towns, the economy is strengthening and the world is acknowledging the country's rise," he said. The prime minister said today the Balochistan had left its restive past behind and progress and development could be seen across the province. He said politics of confrontation and sit-ins had done the nation no good. "Let the pace of progress and development move ahead at a fast pace and let the people of Pakistan reap the benefit," he said.
He said Pakistan would be connected to the Central Asian States through a network of highways, motorways and rail tracks and said the country would soon boast world class interconnected roads. The prime minister also appreciated the performance and quality of work by the China Railways and ZKB. Chairman National Highway Authority briefed the prime minister about the motorway's M3 section, on which 44 percent work has been completed.
He was informed that it was scheduled to be operational by March 2018, while efforts were underway to complete it earlier. The M-3 will connect with M-4 at Abdul Hakeem and provide an alternate and direct route from Lahore to Multan. The project will be completed with a cost of Rs 148.654 billion. The structure at M-3 includes 08 interchanges, 08 bridges over major roads, 35 bridges over canals, minors, 60 underpasses, 201 Cattle Creeps and 705 culverts.