Says Imran’s negative politics always benefited the ruling party making
it win by-polls; govt to install 11,000MW power projects in next three years
LAHORE: Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms Ahsan Iqbal has said Islamabad will not be closed down rather the federal capital will witness an end to politics of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) on November 2 — the day the PTI has planned to siege the Capital.
Talking to media after distributing laptops among students under Prime Minister’s Laptop Scheme at Government College University (GCU) here on Saturday, he said the PTI’s planned protest over Panama Papers was unjustified as the Supreme Court had already taken up the matter.
The federal minister said change was only possible through ballot and added that Imran Khan’s negative politics always benefited the ruling party. In this regard, he cited the PML-N securing massive public mandate by winning various by-elections.
Ahsan Iqbal also said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif always honoured the law and respected the judiciary and the institutions. He added that other political parties must show the same spirit and let the court decide the matter related to Panama Papers. Earlier, addressing the ceremony, the federal minister said, “It is nothing but fiction that Pakistan is sinking. In reality, Pakistan has made a substantial progress and continues to make a solid and irreversible progress under Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's leadership,” he added.
He said just three years ago, Pakistan was labelled as 'the most dangerous place on the earth' by the international media. “Today, the same media recognises Pakistan as an emerging market and a destination for billions of dollars of CPEC investment,” he added.
He also highlighted that Pakistan foreign reserves had also increased to $24 billion from $ 8 million. He said Pakistan had freed itself from the IMF's loan support programme.
The minister for planning and development said that war against terrorism was in final phases. “Pakistan requires hope and unity among people as internal tension could make the country weak.”
Three years ago, he said, the security situation was that terrorists were on the offensive. But today, the state is on the offensive and they (terrorists) are hiding and running to find refuge but they can't find any refuge, he added. “Isn't it a change,” he asked the audience while mentioning the achievements of his PML-N government.
Talking about the Prime Minister's Laptop Scheme, he said that information technology was driving the knowledge revolution today. “We cannot become part of this revolution without equipping our students with the latest IT gadgets and connecting them to the cyber world,” he said.
“In this cyber world, geography has become meaningless. It is connectivity that matters the most. A student in Gilgit is as much connected as a student of Harvard and other top universities of the world,” the minister said.
He said that they had provided over a million laptops to the youth purely on merit irrespective of their political affiliations. He also said Pakistan had missed many opportunities of development due to political instability and military interventions. However, he said that CPEC was a game-changer.
The minister said in 70 years history of the country, PML-N government had brought the biggest portfolio of investment in the energy sector. He said they were going to install 11,000MW power projects in the next three years.
Three years ago, there was 18-20 hours industrial load-shedding in the country and it seemed then that civil war would break out in Pakistan on power outages. But, the present government has been providing uninterrupted power to industries for the last three years, he said.
GCU Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Hassan Amir Shah asked the students to make positive use of the laptops being provided to them by the government. “I know it is difficult to keep yourselves away from social media but your prime objective should be research and learning." He said the federal government was providing laptops to total 1,100 students of GCU this year. He also expressed gratitude to two Old Ravians, Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and Federal Minister Ahsan Iqbal, for providing development funds for the Kala Shah Kaku Campus of their alma mater, GCU.
Later, the minister and the VC gave away laptops to the MPhil and PhD scholars of GCU, while the university's BA/BSc (Hons) students would be provided with laptops next week.
