FAISALABAD: Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif Saturday said that previous governments must be called to account for energy and economic crises that dragged the country into darkness made it lose the distinctive status of best economy in South Asia.
“In 1960 we were ahead of South Korea in development. In 1990, we were the best in the region. In 1999, we were the top economy in South Asia but in 2013, we stood in the last,” the prime minister said in his address at the inauguration ceremony of the 40 megawatts (MW), coal fired power project at Sitara Chemical Industries Ltd (SCIL) here.
The prime minister was accompanied by Governor Punjab Malik Rafiq Rajwana, Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Asif, Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal, Minister for Commerce Khurram Dastgir and Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali.
The 40 MW coal power plant at Sitara Chemical Industries Ltd is the largest of its kind in the industrial sector of Faisalabad. Sitara Chemical Industries Ltd is the flagship company of Sitara Group.
The prime minister unveiled the plaque of the project that has been completed within 27 months costing Rs 3.5 billion.
The prime minister said a dictator had ruled the country for seven years before the five-year term by another government.
“They will have to account for it. History will never pardon them,” the prime minister remarked.
He said the country could never progress amid energy crisis and reiterated that 2018 would be the year of an end to load shedding.
The prime minister lauded the services of Chairman Sitara Chemical Industries Mian Idrees in business sector as well as for charity and public welfare, truly following the footprints of latter’s father Haji Bashir.
He said it was pleasing the investment was increasing, both in the public and private sectors after the government successfully tackled the challenges of energy crisis and terrorism.
“Some two years ago, there was electricity, neither for industrial nor the domestic consumers. There used to be protest demonstrations everywhere against load shedding of up to 12 hours. But today, the industry was being supplied uninterrupted power supply,” he said.
The prime minister said besides ending the load shedding, the government was also striving for low-cost power generation to reduce the commodity prices and enhance country’s exports.
He said the increased revenue could bring in development projects to country, improve health and education sectors, road infrastructure besides ultimately alleviating poverty and unemployment.
He said after 1998, the previous government failed to expand motorway network from ahead of Lahore that was supposed to connect with Karachi and Gwadar.
“But now we are heading forward. Work on Lahore-Multan-Sukkur Motorway was underway. Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway was also being constructed. Work on Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway will start by this year’s end or early next year. After this, we will be proud to have motorway from Karachi to Peshawar,” the prime minister said.
He said the highways and motorways were being constructed in every nook and cranny of Balochistan and Hazara Motorway, being built in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, would be completed by next year. Another motorway between Shorkot and Gojra was under construction, he added.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said in absence of better road infrastructure, the businessmen could not transport their products to local or international markets. He also mentioned the government’s project of farm to market road.
He said the national economy was in take-off position after the government’s successful efforts against terrorism and for economic revival that was also being acknowledged by the international institutions.
He said several power plants were being installed across the country based on hydel, coal, solar and wind resources.
The prime minister said the nationalization of industries in 1960s was a setback for national economy and assured SCIL to remove all bottlenecks in the operations of the power plant.
Referring to government’s efforts for revival of national institutions, the prime minister said the PIA would be revived into one of the best airlines in the world as a premier service has recently been launched. It is also up to the people to take care of this service and protect it from any degradation.
