We’ll keep building roads for you to protest on, Nawaz tells Imran

Prime minister inaugurates Nawaz Sharif Kidney Hospital in Swat

An Express News screengrab of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif addressing a public gathering in Mingora, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on May 20, 2016.

ISLAMABAD:
In a seething attack on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif pledged on Friday to bring a real change in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), a province where PTI is in the government.

“Some people keep saying they will come out on roads. Well, I am building roads on which you can protest," the premier said while addressing a public gathering in Mingora as part of his public-outreach campaign in wake of Panama leaks.

"This is a matter of everyone's own fate. Some build roads others take it to them."

Leaked documents from the Mossack Fonseca law firm in Panama last month showed the premier’s three children – sons, Hassan and Hussain, and his daughter, Maryam – owned at least three offshore holding companies registered in the British Virgin Islands.

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The prime minister lamented people in K-P had fallen for a trap of false promise of change in 2013 general elections.

“Had you not fallen for a trap in 2013 [general elections], real change would have come by now,” he said. “I have seen the dilapidated roads of Mingora, Swat and Saidu Shareef from a helicopter and nothing has changed.”

PM Nawaz said his government will bring real change in K-P.

“It does not matter if they [PTI] failed to bring any change because we will bring the real change. We are bringing change in institutions.”

PM announces development projects

Announcing several development projects, the prime minister announced to build separate university campuses for women in Mingora and Shangla, carpeting of roads, restoring the existing airport of Saidu Sharif and to build technical institutions for youth across the province.


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“The current party [PTI] in K-P is down to number fourth. Let me tell you what a new Pakistan will be, I am announcing a separate campus for women in K-P.”

The prime minister reiterated his stance over elimination of power loadshedding from the country by 2018.

“Power load-shedding will be completely eliminated from the country by 2018. The government will also lay foundation of a Rs300 million grid station in Mingora which will be produce 132 KW of electricity.”

Nawaz Sharif Kidney Hospital inaugurated

Earlier, the prime minister inaugurated the newly-constructed Nawaz Sharif Kidney Hospital in Swat.

The 116-bed hospital, which has been completed at a cost of about Rs600 million and spreads over 32 kanals, has an OPD, an operation theatre, male and female wards, dialysis units and other necessary facilities, according to Radio Pakistan.

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Although the hospital was opened for patients in December 2014 after its construction had been announced by the prime minister on November 12, 2012, as a present to the residents of Swat and Malakand Divisions from the Punjab Hospital Trust, it could not become operational for several reasons.

After Operation Rah-e-Rast against the Taliban, Swat was termed a war-struck zone and many families from the district migrated to other districts of K-P.

Even after families returned, Swat was devastated, the administration was disturbed, schools were destroyed, roads were unpaved and hospitals were empty. The Punjab Hospital Trust then gifted the modern kidney hospital to the residents of Swat and Malakand Division.

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