The project is spread over 670 acres and has been completed at the cost of Rs1.5 billion. PHOTO: CREATIVE COMMONS
Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Monday inaugurated the Multan Industrial Estate Phase-II. The project is spread over 670 acres and has been completed at the cost of Rs1.5 billion.
Addressing the inauguration, the chief minister revealed that feasibility report of 12 more industrial estates in the Punjab had been completed and will be inaugurated soon. He said these projects would generate employment opportunities across the province for more than two million families in five years.
Blaming the federal government for the energy crisis in Pakistan, Sharif said that President Asif Ali Zardari had abandoned the people to suffer from unemployment and poverty for five year. Only now was he talking about the Iran-Pakistan gas pipe-line, he added.
Sharif said that the federal government could have chosen sugarcane, coal or some other cheap fuel for producing electricity, but they depended instead on buying fuel from abroad because they got kickbacks in the bargain. He said sugarcane could be used to produce 6,000 megawatts of electricity.
He said the biggest problem in the presence of President Zardari was that the assets of Pakistan were in a single hand. “In such circumstances, a country cannot be expected to move in the direction of economic growth,” he added.
The chief minister said that the PML-N leadership would not award ticket to anybody who was accused of corruption and nepotism. He said family or work connections, too, would not be considered while deciding party tickets. This, he said, will be purely on merit.
“Yesterday when he was inaugurating the Bilawal House in Lahore, the PML-N was inaugurating the historical Metro Bus Service in the city.”
He said those who did not live in the hearts of the people could not find peace in their bunkers.
Sharif said that the federal government claimed to have spent Rs50 billion on development projects only in Multan. From the condition of the city, he said, it seemed that only Rs50 million had been spent.
“Seeing the deplorable condition of Multan, I had gifted the city a hard working and honest DCO in Naseem Sadiq, who is known for his bold decisions and checks against corruption and mal-administration.”
The chief minister later visited Muzaffargarh to condole the death of former PML-N member Sardar Amjad Khan Dasti and met the deceased’s daughter Begum Tehmina Dasti.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 12th, 2013.
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