Hazara motorway ground breaking: Sit-ins and roadblocks are impeding progress, says PM

Says PML-N, not PTI, is creating a new Pakistan; announces Rs9.66 cut in oil prices

HAVELIAN:

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday heaped scorn at the sit-ins staged by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), calling them roadblocks in the way of progress and prosperity and inimical to the interests of the country.

Addressing a large gathering at the foundation stone-laying ceremony of the 60km long Hazara motorway project, PM Nawaz said the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was not only making a new Pakistan but also a new Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in the true sense and the launch of mega developmental projects was proof of it. The project costing Rs33 billion will link Bhurhan to Havelian.

“We will put an end to unemployment, underdevelopment, overcome energy crisis once and for all, lay a network of motorway across the country and ensure prosperity,” he said.

He pointed out that a railway track would be constructed from Islamabad to Muzaffarabad, link the Hazara motorway to Gilgit-Baltistan and Islamabad through tunnels that would usher in a new era of real development in the country especially in Hazara division.

Nawaz also stated that when he came to Havelian during the election campaign he promised to allocate a chunk of development funds for Hazara which he fulfilled by laying the foundation stone of Hazara motorway project.  He announced the early reconstruction of 1,000 schools in the earthquake-hit districts as well as provision of Sui gas to areas still deprived of it in Hazara.



PM Nawaz also announced a cut of Rs9.66 per litre in super petrol price, adding that the proper notification would be issued today (Sunday).

Without naming the PTI, the prime minister said that what the sit-ins could bring for the people of Pakistan is “only regression, joblessness and deprivation”.

He said that his government would continue its efforts for bringing prosperity for the people of Pakistan without caring for sit-ins because he believes the nation would itself punish them during the election in 2018.

Lambasting the PTI for what he called abusive language, he said that parents must ask their children what they were learning from these dharnas.

Addressing the PTI chief without actually naming him, PM Nawaz said: “Don’t teach children such type of language during sit-ins and do the politics of decency and morality.”

On this occasion K-P Governor Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan, Gilgit-Baltistan governor and chief minister, Federal Minister Sardar Muhammad Yousuf, National Assembly Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi, Capt. Safdar, Pir Sabir Shah and PML-N’s lawmakers were also present.


Published in The Express Tribune, November 30^th, 2014.