Govt spending Rs26b on KP gas supply projects: Khaqan

MARDAN: Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Monday said that the federal government was spending Rs26 billion on Sui gas supply projects in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

He was speaking at a big public meeting held at the residence of member of provincial assembly Jamshed Khan Mohmand at Shergarh in Takht Bhai tehsil in Mardan district.

The federal minister on the occasion inaugurated work on the supply of natural gas to the villages of provincial constituency PK 27 Mardan.

The project was approved by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and he was supposed to inaugurate it, but his visit was cancelled due to his preoccupation with the Panama Papers leaks case in the Supreme Court.

Jamshed Mohmand was elected MPA as an independent candidate but he later supported the PTI-led provincial government. Last year he joined the PML-N and got a promise from Amir Muqam, the advisor to the Prime Minister, that gas would be supplied to his constituency.

The public meeting on Monday was promoted as a show of strength by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in Mardan. The party workers carrying the PML-N flags converged on the venue of the meeting from the adjoining areas and raised slogans in favour of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and other party leaders. The gas supply project was a source of immense joy for the people in the area as it had been their old demand.

Speaking on the occasion, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said the federal government would provide natural gas to more than 2.2 million houses of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He added that the federal government would spend Rs1.2 billion on natural gas project in PK-27 Mardan.

The federal minister said the PTI chief Imran Khan had failed to provide relief to the masses in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. “The people of this province voted Imran Khan’s party to power but it failed to serve them,” he maintained.

Talking of the Panama Papers leaks issue, he said there were no corruption charges against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.  Rather, he said the group of conspirators created hurdles in the development of the country. “Enemies do not want Pakistan to make progress,” he alleged.

The federal minister said Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif completed several projects in Punjab including Metro Bus project while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak could not even start an auto rickshaw service in his province.

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said the Prime Minister made Pakistan a nuclear power and now China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would make the country an Asian tiger.

He advised Imran Khan to stop dreaming of becoming prime minister and instead first get cleared from the Election Commission of Pakistan.

PML-N provincial President Amir Muqam said Imran Khan could not become the prime minister of the country throughout his life. He said the PTI chief was busy in plotting conspiracies. He claimed the people were quitting the PTI in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as it had failed to bring the promised change in the province.

Amir Muqam came down hard on Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and blamed him for the poor state of affairs in the province. He termed him a slave of Imran Khan instead of being the chief minister of the province.

“These conspirators cannot compete with those who are taking practical steps for the prosperity of the masses and development of the country,” he declared.

The PML-N leader said those who had raised the slogan of change were taking the last breath and would be defeated and expelled from the province in the upcoming election in 2018.

Amir Muqam announced that gas supply project for the PK-28 constituency that includes areas of Katlang tehsil in Mardan has also been approved and work on it would be inaugurated in the ongoing week.

National Assembly Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi, who is provincial general secretary of the PML-N, said his party like the 2013 general election would again defeat Imran Khan’s PTI in the next year’s polls.