PM says PML-N govt fulfilled all pledges

PESHWAR/JAMRUD: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Wednesday said that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government fulfilled the pledges it had made with the people during its election campaign.

"We have overcome the energy crisis in the country and eliminated loadshedding. We produced surplus electricity for 11 months," he said while addressing a ceremony that marked opening of the expanded and renovated Bacha Khan International Airport, Peshawar.

The premier said the federal government developed a network of motorways in the country and established new ones and expanded and renovated the existing airports in the country. "We honoured the pledged former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had made with the people and I am inaugurating the projects launched by the PML-N Quaid on weekly basis," he added.

Khaqan Abbasi said that various projects were lying incomplete but the Adviser to Prime Minister on Aviation Mehtab Ahmad Khan took the responsibility and you can see the results. "The completion of the Phase-I of the expansion of the Peshawar Airport has been completed and international standard facilities have been provided to the domestic and international passengers at the facility," he asserted.

The premier added that he was aware of the hardships the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) faced during the expansion project. "It has been a great achievement that the CAA completed the project despite all these challenges," he added. "I congratulate the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and tribal areas on the completion of the expansion work who would get improved facilities after execution of this project," he went on to say.

The premier said that the airport was in a shambles and needed immediate attention of the government to carry out the much-needed uplift work and provide standard facilitate to the people. "Establishing a new airport is not difficult but expanding an existing one is a very challenging job," he added. He said the expansion work would not only be enough to meet the present day requirements but would also cater to the need of the passengers for the years to come.

“In between the 60-70s I used to study in a school situated at a few yards distance from this airport but I did not notice or witness any development work carried out here till the 90s,” he recalled.

He also said that state-of-the-art airport was inaugurated in Islamabad, Faisalabad Airport was expanded, expansion work was also carried out in a private airport in Sialkot, development work on an airport launched by the previous Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)-led federal government was completed in Multan, work on airport would be launched in Lahore in the coming days while the design of an international standard airport in Gwadar in Balochistan had been prepared and work on it would be launched soon.

The ground breaking of an airport in Quetta would be performed the next week,” he added. He said the economy and development of a country was judged from its air transport services and that was why improvement in this sector was among the top priorities of the PML-N government. “We were determined to bring about revolution in the transport sector. A six-lane 1,700 kilometer motorway is being developed in the country.