Pakistan desires good ties with India: Nawaz

MADINA MUNAWARA: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday said the government was committed to bringing economic stability and ending loadshedding and terrorism in Pakistan for the cause of peace.
Addressing a gathering of Pakistanis here, Nawaz reiterated his government’s resolve to eliminate extremism and terrorism from the country. He said the supporters of terrorism would not be spared and the law of the land would prevail. He said the Operation Zarb-e-Azb was going on successfully and would continue till the elimination of the last terrorist. In this regard, he mentioned the national consensus to amend the Army Act.
He said Pakistan had good ties with Afghanistan and desired good ties with India as well. He regretted the incidents of firing across the Line of Control and said they must end. Pakistan, he said, desired resolution of all issues with India. He said the government was improving governance and ensuring transparency in all affairs and pointed out that their efforts had been endorsed by the Transparency International.
He said when his government came to power, the foreign exchange reserves were less than $8 billion, whereas, in 20 months, they had risen to $16 billion and the State Bank of Pakistan reserves had gone up to $11 billion.
He said the PML-N government was working on short and long-term projects to end loadshedding and an additional 10,000MWs of electricity would be added to the national grid by end-2017. He said the loadshedding would end in three years.
He informed the gathering of the Karachi-Lahore motorway project and said land was being acquired for the project that would usher in an era of prosperity in the county. He said the Lahore-Islamabad motorway was also being renovated and would have better fencing, service areas, trees and other modern facilities.
Dismissing allegations of rigging in the last general elections, he said that, in fact, after recounting, the number of PML-N votes increased. His party won NA seats with huge margins.He said even courts and the Election Commission of Pakistan were surprised over rigging allegations. He said the PML-N was part of neither federal nor provincial caretaker setups, so how it could be accused of any malpractice.
Earlier, he offered Friday prayers at the Masjid-e-Nabwi in Madina and prayed for the prosperity of Pakistan. He also offered Nawafil and recited Holy Quran there, said a statement from the PM Office.
Thousands of people present in and outside the mosque chanted “Long Live Pakistan” and “Long Live Nawaz Sharif”.The prime minister also offered Fajr prayers at the Masjid-e-Nabwi. On Friday evening, he returned home.