SHEIKHUPURA: Insisting that he never lied to the nation, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday told his detractors to stop conspiring against the country.
“I never lied to the nation, and never ever made any false promise. The people of the country are now witness to the fact that all the promises of putting an end to load shedding and completion of road networks are being fulfilled,” the Premier said while addressing a gathering after reviewing the pace of progress of the Bhikki Power Plant.
Nawaz said his government was committed to progress and development, and undertaking a string of projects across the country to boost the national economy, generate employment and reduce poverty. The gas-powered Bhikki Power Plant has a total capacity of 1,180 megawatts and would be fully operational by the end of 2018.
Almost 84 percent work has been completed and the plant would be producing 716 MW initially before the summer this year.
He said only a year ago he visited the site of the project that was located in between the fields; however, today a huge infrastructure had cropped up in a short span of time.
The PM said the pace of progress on the project was very impressive and “unbelievable”.
He said the project would be known in the times ahead for being very cost-effective.
He said he was confident that soon the country would get an additional 10,000 MW of electricity. Transmission line to deliver the power generated to the national grid was already complete, he added. He said the Bhikki plant also had two of the largest reservoirs for hi speed diesel that would be used to run the plant.
Nawaz said his vision was to add 30,000 MW to meet the future needs of the country.
He said the cost of production of electricity was only Rs 6.36 per unit, while in the past the price per unit was as high as Rs 36 per unit through furnace oil. He said that with power generation from coal, the cost of production would further drop.
He said the farmers were already being provided power at Rs 5.35 per unit; however, he added that his government was looking forward to further reduce the cost to Rs 2 or Rs 3 per unit.
The premier said that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government was totally different from others who, during their tenure, were more interested in getting kickbacks, commissions and setting up expensive projects.
He said the people needed to see the wide difference between the approaches of the PML-N government and others and judge for themselves who were really serving them.
The PM said that had the pace of development and progress initiated by him in the early 90s allowed to continue unhindered, the country would have been included in the list of developed countries.
He said that when his government came to an abrupt end in 1999, the country had surplus power, and was making remarkable progress in all areas; however, later none of the governments bothered to fulfil their responsibility to meet power shortages and complete the ongoing projects.
He said his government reinitiated all the stalled projects and particularly mentioned progress on Neelum-Jhelum and Lowari Tunnel.
He also recalled the initiation of many old and new projects across the country that included power plants, airports, motorways, metro services, Orange Line in Lahore and central train service for Karachi.
The Prime Minister said that apart from development projects, his government was also working hard to turn around the national economy.
He cited a number of leading international publications, including the CNN, Economist and Bloomberg, who were acknowledging the marked improvement in economy and the country’s bright future ahead.
