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Tuesday March 19, 2024

Our performance to wash away unfounded allegations: PM

By Muhammad Saleh Zaafir
May 26, 2017

Says those levelling baseless accusations hampering country’s progress; people will distinguish between negative, corrupt elements and those who deliver; Shahbaz Sharif is real hero; it’s Punjab Speed, PML-N Speed; inaugurates first unit of country’s largest 1,320-MW Sahiwal coal-fired power plant

SAHIWAL: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday said his opponents, harming the country in the garb of opposition, were destined to fail.

The prime minister said his government's performance would wash away all the baseless allegations by the opposition, which were impeding the country's progress.

"They are not impeding or attempting to foil me. They are attempting to obstruct the country's progress. We will not allow them to affect our pace. People will distinguish between the negative and corrupt elements and those, who delivered," he said, addressing the inauguration ceremony of the first unit of 1,320-MW Sahiwal Coal Power Project, which is the largest of its nature in the country.

Nawaz said he had no time to respond to the unfounded accusations of the opposition rather left it up to the people to decide as all of his focus would be on their uplift. "Now work (on the development projects) has started and it will not stop," the prime minister expressed his resolve.

Nawaz assured the people that his government would not only eliminate loadshedding but also provide it on cheaper rates. He said the government had planned allocating a record budget for development in the next fiscal year as the people would listen to Finance Minister Ishaq Dar delivering the annual budget speech in the National Assembly on Friday.

Lauding the successful execution of the power project in just 22 months, he said it wasMinister Ishaq Dar delivering the annual budget speech in the National Assembly on Friday.

Lauding the successful execution of the power project in just 22 months, he said it was unprecedented in the country's history, as usually even the coal shed (a component of the project) took more than two years to complete.

"This is Punjab Speed. This is the PML-N speed. Hats off to you Shahbaz Sharif! You called me hero, you are a hero yourself," the prime minister remarked. Brushing aside the opposition's allegations, he said had the current government been corrupt, such a huge project would never have been completed in 22 months.

On the chief minster's recommendation, he also announced one-month bonus salary to all of the Chinese and Pakistani workers, who had been part of the project. He lauded the services of Chinese Ambassador Sun Weidong in the implementation of CPEC and appreciated Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafiq for timely extending the railway line to the project site for transportation of coal.

The prime minister said not only the Sahiwal Power Project but also other power projects were being executed under CPEC. He said his government had inherited three challenges i.e. energy crisis, extremism and terrorism and revival of economy and all of them had been tackled prudently.

"We have dismantled terrorists network. Terrorism is being rooted out. We will not rest until the last terrorist is eliminated. Economy has started doing well and is turning around.” He said the power crisis would soon come to an end as the government was going to add around 10,000 megawatts of electricity to the national grid by 2018. There would be no loadshedding by next year, Nawaz promised.

He said besides ensuring sufficient power generation, the government was also striving hard to bring the power tariff down to facilitate the domestic consumers. The prime minister said CPEC was a game changer and something unprecedented in the country's history as around $56 billion was being invested that could go up to $63 billion.

Earlier, the prime minister visited the control room and different portions of the power plant where he interacted with the Pakistani and Chinese engineers. The project has been completed in a record period of 22 months, six months ahead of the prescribed schedule after the prime minister performed ground breaking on May 30, 2014.

The first 660-MW unit has already been connected to the national grid two weeks ago, while the second one is expected to start functioning from the first week of next month. With state-of-the-art technology, the plant is environmentally compliant with high thermal efficiency to ensure low fuel consumption. The power generation from the project is expected to exceed 9 billion kWh, which would significantly contribute in alleviating the energy crisis in the country. It will produce electricity at tariff of Rs 8.11 per unit. The Punjab government had extended loan facility to Pakistan Railways for construction of track from the nearest railway station to the project site for transporting coal.