Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif Friday said the PML-N government led by Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif is striving to steer the country out of problems and its sincere and strenuous efforts will be fruitful and Pakistan will emerge as a strong country. "Destiny of the poor people can be changed and all the problems can be overcome by adopting the golden principle of honesty, commitment and hard work," Shahbaz said while addressing the meeting of Provincial Parliamentary Party of Pakistan Muslim League-N here.
Provincial Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan, Raja Ashfaq Sarwar and Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman also spoke on this occasion. Chairman Planning & Development and Secretary Finance gave briefings on important features of the budget. The Chief Minister said that formal rulers through their loot and corruption brought the country and its economy to the verge of bankruptcy and disaster while the nation was put into worst darkness. He said that the formal government showed criminal negligence towards overcoming energy crisis and put the future of 180 million people of Pakistan at stake due to its greed and lust for money.
He said it is unfortunate that when the country was immersed in darkness, the machinery of Nandipur power project kept rusting at Karachi Port for three years. He said that the present government revived this dead project through its commitment and determination and it has started producing 100 megawatt electricity within a short period of only seven months. He said that an additional sum of 27 billion rupees of the hard earned money of the poor masses had to be spent on 450 megawatts Nandipur Power Project. Shahbaz said that immediately after taking over power, the PML-N government realised the seriousness of the issue of shortage of electricity and started making efforts to resolve energy crisis. He said that foundation stone of the projects for generation of electricity from coal has been laid at Port Qasim, Sahiwal and Gaddani while work is speedily in progress over Quaid-e-Azam Solar Park in Bahawalpur.
He said China has allocated a huge sum of $20 billion for power generation projects of 20,000 megawatts. He said that Chinese leadership has expressed full confidence in Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and given the gift of historic investment package of 32 billion dollars for the next seven years and every effort will have to be made for fully benefiting from this package. He said that excellent team work has been shown during last one year which has yielded positive results and the same commitment will be shown in future as well to move forward. He said that if the dead project can be revived within seven months, the country can also be steered out of its problems. He said that nation will have to rely on itself as no one will come forward for its help. He said that it is the responsibility of the government to come up to the expectations of the masses at any cost.
The Chief Minister said Pakistan can achieve a dignified status in the comity of nations through hard work and commitment. He said the development targets cannot be achieved without elimination of corruption and the collusion between contractors, corrupt officers and some politicians has weakened the very foundations of the country. He said that the time has come to put an end to this evil alliance and purge the country of the curse of corruption. He said the people and elected representatives will have to make joint efforts to root out corruption and ensure completion of development schemes as well as utilisation of funds in a transparent manner. He said that such a system cannot survive under which elite has all facilities while the common man is deprived of even the basic amenities. He said that every effort will have to be made to provide relief to the common man and now elite will have to make sacrifices. He said that special attention has been paid to the development of south Punjab and uplift projects of billion of rupees have been completed in this region. He said that the longest metro bus service of Pakistan is being started in Multan and a sum of more than 30 billion rupees will be spent on this project.
Provincial Minister for Finance Mian Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman while addressing the meeting said that the growth rate of eight percent has been fixed for next four years and work has been started to achieve this target. He said that the new budget will prove to be a milestone in the progress and development of Punjab. He said that people of Punjab are fortunate to have a leader like Shahbaz Sharif whose qualities have been acknowledged even by international institutions and personalities.
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