‘What is the difference between terrorism and sit-ins?’

PM says both want to halt wheel of progress;
sit-ins create law and order situation; road blockades push the country into darkness; performs ground-breaking of Sukkur-Multan section of Motorway

SUKKUR: Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on Friday asked the people about the difference between terrorism and sit-ins as both created law and order situation and halted the wheel of progress in the country. He said that through agitation, protesters wanted to block the roads, cause disturbances in peace and push the country to darkness. He added that such elements would not be allowed to carry out their agenda. The prime minister maintained that corruption of even a penny could not be proved against him.

The prime minister performed the ground-breaking ceremony of Rs294 billion 393-kilometre-long Motorway from Sukkur to Multan and announced a new bridge on the River Indus at Sukkur to replace the old bridge here on Friday.

Addressing on the occasion of the ground-breaking ceremony of the Sukkur-Multan Motorway, he said the nation had squarely rejected the agenda of all those who were against Pakistan’s development and progress through negative politics.

He said that the nation was keen to see an end to poverty, unemployment, lack of health facilities, education and other social sector problems. “We will continue to serve the masses selflessly with the same vigour, zeal and commitment. Pakistan would soon be a part of the global economic powers,” Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said and added that the politics of sit-ins had severely hindered the country’s progress and prosperity.

He regretted that the country had lost a precious one-and-a-half years due to the negative politics of sit-ins that achieved nothing. He said the agenda of terrorists was to create divert attention of the government from development. The people of Pakistan have given us their mandate and with Allah's help, we will complete our tenure," he said. 

The prime minister said that he wished that Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah was here at this grand event. "We are building a bridge in your area, while you are demanding my resignation," he quibbled. He said that the opposition leader must understand the agenda and should not side with those who were against country's progress and development. 

The prime minister who was in pleasant disposition asked the crowd whether the situation in the country had improved over the past three years or not, to which the huge gathering of the people of Sukkur and surrounding areas responded with enthusiasm. He also questioned whether they saw improvement in situation in Karachi, law and order across the country, national economy, terrorism and other areas, to which the large crowd acknowledged again with a resounding applause. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said he was proud that the PML-N government had always worked with complete transparency. He said former president Pervez Musharraf tried his best to dig out corruption of even a single penny against him but failed to do so. 

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said that Transparency International also endorsed this. Similarly other international agencies also spoke of improvement in the economic indicators, lower corruption, increased productivity, he added. The prime minister said that today the loadshedding of electricity was considerably down and there was more availability of natural gas. He said the electricity tariffs was now 30 percent down, new industries were being set up and a lot of economic activity being generated. 

He said that he was not afraid of anyone and did his best to strengthen country's defence and said that had he feared anyone, he would not have conducted the nuclear tests. The prime minister said that this motorway would become part of multi-billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). He specifically mentioned the role of China in Pakistan's prosperity and said with the $46 billion dollar projects, the country would soon be amongst the list of developed countries.

The prime minister said that his dream of connecting the entire country with a robust linkage of roads, motorways and expressways was about to come true. He said that the CPEC project would link China's Kashgar with Gwadar, but the sections of motorways would also connect it to Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asian Republics. He said that the region, comprising three billion population in China, Saarc, Central Asian, is almost equal to the population in rest of the world and said that the people here had a bright future. 

The prime minister said he had envisioned the project of regional connectivity in 1990, however regretted that all his plans were shattered due to the situation in 1999. He said had he continued with his ambitious plans, things today would have been different altogether. He recalled recent groundbreaking of the Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway and said that work on the 296-km long Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway would start soon. 

He reminded the people that the 393-km long Sukkur-Multan motorway would be six-laned comprising ten rest areas with a far better quality than the existing roads. He said the new motorway would provide connectivity and speedy travel across the country. 

Nawaz Sharif said that his opponents did not wish him to undertake these gigantic development projects and said despite their attempts to hamper progress, he would continue to serve the nation. 

He also announced construction of a new bridge over the river Indus parallel to 125-year old Sukkur barrage and said the new bridge would be built at a cost of Rs6.5 billion and said work on the project would start this year. He said the old bridge would be preserved as a national heritage. 

The prime minister, at the end of his speech, raised the slogan of Pakistan Zindabad, to which the crowd responded enthusiastically.  Speaking on the occasion, acting Ambassador of China Zhao Lijian said Peshawar-Karachi Motorway (PKM) and Korakorum Highway (KKH), the two big projects under CPEC, were the most significant cooperation symbols between Pakistan and China. He mentioned that the Multan-Sukkur section was the most difficult section of PKM, owing to traffic density and population. He said the Chinese government decided to offer soft loan for building this section, which he said would create jobs, increase tax revenues, promote area links and ensure the well-being of the people. Zhao Lijian said the project being the largest under CPEC would be undertaken by the China Construction Company, which is the largest trans-national company in the world completing more than 1,500 projects globally. The company is also building terminal of Islamabad's new airport, he said. 

Federal Secretary Ministry of Communications Khalid Masood Chaudhry said the Karachi-Lahore motorway was being constructed by National Highway Authority (NHA) on priority basis as per directive of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. He highlighted the importance of the M5 which, he said, would be the fastest road link between Sindh and Punjab. He mentioned that the six-lane Motorway passing through Multan, Jalalpur Peerwala, Ahmedpur East, Ubaro and Pano Aqil would terminate at Sukkur with a total 54 bridges to be constructed including one major bridge at the river Sutlej. He said that the Karachi-Lahore section of the PKM had been divided into four sections including 136-km Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway, 296-km Hyderabad-Sukkur Motorway, 387-km Sukkur-Multan Motorway and 333-km Multan-Lahore Motorway.