PM explains criticality of country''s financial, economic hub: ''Karachi operation against no political party''

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Saturday said the ongoing operation in Karachi was against criminals and not against any particular political party. Talking to the members of business community here at the Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Prime Minister said the Karachi operation would be taken to its logical conclusion.
He said the government was committed to transforming Karachi into a peaceful city so that investors could utilise the existing excellent infrastructure of the port city.
He said incidents of kidnappings for ransom, targeted-killings and heinous crimes had declined considerably following the operation and hoped that life in the city would soon return to normalcy and make Karachi an ideal destination of industrialists and investors from across the world.
He said the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government was not doing any favour by conducting an operation in Karachi, rather it was doing so because of its national obligations. It was the responsibility of the government to make Karachi and the entire country peaceful, he added.
Nawaz Sharif said the government had reduced bank borrowing to increase private sector space. It had also reduced interest rate, which would be further cut to promote economic activities in the country, he added.
The Prime Minister said the government wanted to reduce the electricity tariff and cheap sources of energy, including coal and LNG, were being exploited.
According to him, Sialkot has a special significance in the country''s economy and investment in the area will be encouraged to further enhance exports.
Meanwhile, addressing Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) workers here at the residence of Federal Minister for Water and Power Khwaja Muhammad Asif, the prime minister said the PML-N was the only political party which was committed to the development and progress of the country. He vowed that the people would witness a positive change in their lives by the end of its tenure.
The people, he added, had given his party a mandate to serve them, end loadshedding, provide natural gas, eliminate terrorism and rectify economy. He said his entire government''s machinery was working round-the-clock to ease the sufferings of people, who had suffered for years. He said he was not into the habit of making false promises as a number of public welfare projects had been initiated.
He was optimist that loadshedding would end and terrorism would be wiped out from the country during the tenure of his government, he added.
The Prime Minister said the promises made by the PML-N during its election campaign would be fulfilled and his party would return victorious in 2018 general election at the end of its five-year term.
He recalled in 1999 when the PML-N was in power, the country was not facing issues like terrorism, sectarianism, extremism and electricity loadshedding, rather it was heading towards progress. It had become an atomic power during the PML-N government''s tenure, he added.
He said the country witnessed development only during the PML-N governments and mentioned the construction of motorways and highways, and conducting nuclear tests in this regard. No other previous government, he regretted, did play its part in addressing challenges and taking the country forward.
The Prime Minister said his government had inherited problems but it would not disappoint the nation.
Nawaz Sharif said the government was determined to overcome energy crisis, reduce prices of electricity and gas, and ensure progress and prosperity of the country. The government, he added, was also working hard to lower the prices of fertilisers. This, he said, would help reduce inflation rate and increase exports. He announced that the government would construct an expressway between Sialkot and Lahore.
He stressed the need for setting up a technology university in Sialkot to benefit youngsters, industrialists and exporters.