Shahbaz blasts Musharraf for ignoring hydel projects

Inspects under construction plant at Baloke; says
Imran praises judiciary only if verdict is in his favour

LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Wednesday said the dictator, Pervez Musharraf, raising the slogan of ‘Pakistan First’, did not think about constructing Dassu and Bhasha dams.

Musharraf caused irreparable loss to Pakistan with regard to energy, said Shahbaz who was talking to media persons after visiting the under-construction gas-fired power plant at Baloke. He said they had great respect for the Supreme Court and its verdicts, which was currently hearing the Panama Papers case. But on the contrary, the chief minister added, the former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was very good for Imran Khan, if the decision was in his favour but not when against him.

Unlike Imran, everyone should respect the court decision, the chief minister remarked, adding that his attitude was tantamount to killing justice. Shahbaz said the time was not far when their opponents would also be compelled to appreciate the energy projects launched by the PML-N government, as the record of speed, transparency and saving set under the leadership of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was unprecedented.

He said the past rulers ruined the country and looted the resources ruthlessly. The destiny of Pakistan was linked to energy projects and he would motivate the engineers for speedy execution of projects, Shahbaz added.

The chief minister said gas-run power plants at Baloke, Haveli Bahadur Shah and Bhikki would be completed within a period of 27 months without any additional expenditure, whereas such projects were not completed even in the past 60 months.

He said thousands of engineers and labourers were working on the project, adding that installation of generators had been completed whereas turbines based modern technology would also arrive in March.

The chief minister said the first turbine would become operational in July while the second in August, supplying 750-MWs of electricity to the national grid. The plant would be running at full capacity (1,223-MW) in January 2018, he added.

He said the government was executing the electricity projects speedily despite the sit-ins of 2014 and lockdown of 2016, adding that the protest wasted precious time of the nation but “we continued working on power projects.”  Shahbaz said work was also in full progress on 1,320-MW Sahiwal Coal Power Plant which would be completed in June instead of the Dec 25, 2017 deadline.  He said Chinese company Harbin International and General Electric of the US installed the Guddu power plant at the rate of $834,000 per megawatt but we are setting Baloke gas power project with $469,000 per megawatt, which is a proof of the fact that investors had complete confidence in the prime minister’s leadership.

He said the 985-MW Neelum-Jhelum Hydel Power Project launched in 2003 was still incomplete with $4.5 billion being spent on that only because of Musharraf. Replying to another question, the chief minister said Nawaz had once decided to construct Kalabagh Dam, but it was a non-practicable project. “It is against the solidarity of Pakistan to start work on this project unless the entire nation is united and the four brothers agreed,” he stressed.  He said the provinces had differences on Kalabagh Dam project, which was also a gift of dictatorship, adding that consensus of all the four provinces was necessary.