Govt ready to make all compromises for rule: Imran

Condemns drone attack; opens hydropower project in Battagram

BATTAGRAM: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, while condemning the drone attacks in Pakistan, said on Wednesday that the government was ready to make all compromises for rule.

He condemned the recent US drone hit in Balochistan that took out the Afghan Taliban leader Mulla Akhtar Mansour and said that such attacks were condemnable and against the territorial integrity of the country.

“This is a wrong policy of the US. Terrorism cannot be stamped out by conducting drone attacks,” he said while talking to reporters after inaugurating a micro-hydropower project in Union Council Shamlai here.

Imran Khan opened three projects of hydropower in Shamlia that would collectively generate 400 kilowatts electricity.Taking a swipe at Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the PTI leader said that the federal government was now announcing uplift projects to save the premier from accountability.

“The rulers accumulated wealth through illegal means and transferred it to foreign countries to save their skins,” Imran Khan said, alleging that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had pocketed millions of rupees by spending Rs200 billion on the Orange Train project.

He also came down hard on Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman and said he (Fazl) would not be able to save the prime minister from accountability.Imran Khan said that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government was committed to ensuring good governance and making it sure that teachers, doctors and other employees performed duty. He added that efforts were also being made to provide health and education facilities to the people.

The PTI chief said the provincial government devolved power to the village council level to empower the people to make their own decisions.“Small hydro powerhouses are being established to overcome the issue of loadshedding and provide cheap electricity to the people,” he added.

Imran Khan said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was rich in water resources and these would be tapped to generate inexpensive electricity.Speaking on the occasion, Minister for Energy and Power Muhammad Atif Khan said that work on 356 mini-micro hydel projects costing Rs5.524 billion in 12 different districts of the province was underway.

He added that the number of mini-micro hydel projects would be enhanced to 1,000 with the support of Asian Development Bank to overcome the shortage of electricity.He said the power policy 2016 had been approved for making full utilisation of hydel power in larger interest of the province and its people.