Poll prediction: Nawaz says ‘lion’ will devour all ‘pigeons’

Hits out at PPP, PTI; asks why opposition parties are facing defeat in elections

MUZAFFRABAD: Hitting out at his political detractors, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has claimed that his party will also sweep the next general elections despite the opposition parties’ protests and sit-ins.

“They [the opposition parties] have closed their eyes like pigeons and have no courage to see the development projects started by our government from Kashmir to Sindh. They will continue to stage dharnas and anti-government rallies till elections.

“However, lion [the ruling party’s election symbol] will devour all the ‘closed-eyes pigeon’ in 2018,” Nawaz said on Friday while addressing a gathering after visiting the under-construction 969 MW Neelum Jehlum Hydro Electricity Power Project (NJHEP) in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

Nawaz asked the audience as to why the opposition parties face a defeat during polls if they have public support. “When our opponents are not in position to win elections then why they are talking so loudly,” he asked.

Obliquely criticising the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the PM said the previous governments were responsible for the existing energy crisis and should be held accountable for that.



“Now it does not suit them [the PPP] to protest against the power outages,” he said, adding that dharnas were aimed at pushing the country to darkness.

The PM also lambasted Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and said due to the party’s 2014 marathon sit-in in Islamabad the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project was delayed by 10 months.

Without naming anyone, the PM said ‘some’ were staging sit-ins and abusing the government and its functionaries publically in a bid to create hurdle in the way to prosperity.

“However, I will not respond to their foul language. Their abusive language damages them, not us. We are working for the country to put it on the right track and will not allow anyone to stop this progress,” he added.

Enumerating his government’s achievements, Nawaz Sharif said during the four years of his government no corruption scandal had emerged while a net of motorways had been established from Kashmir to Babusar Pass, which, according to him, was not an ordinary job.

“When we came to power terrorism was on the rise but now peace is returning to the country. Karachi is peaceful now.  Economy is on the right track and Karachi stock market has been ranked as the top five stock markets in the world,” he said.

The PM said Pakistanis in 2012 were witnessing 16 to 18  hours load-shedding but now the industries were getting 100% uninterrupted power supply.

“In 2018, more than 10,000 MW will be added to the system. Our government has produced enough power which has not been generated in last 70 years.  We are happy to see mega project like the NJHEP near completion,” he added.

Talking with reference to the NJHEP, he said: “When the electricity form this project will be added to the national grid in 2018, the entire country will witness prosperity”.

He said at least 4,000 people had been working on the NJHEP and more than 68 kilometre-long tunnels of the NJHEP have been completed in the mountains of the AJK to make this energy project operational.

“It is a revolution of prosperity and development which we started four years ago,” Nawaz said, adding that the LNG and coal projects are also near completion to overcome the energy crisis in the country.