PM vows to complete unfinished agenda of 1992

A network of motorways and rail infrastructure to be developed in the country

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has declared friendship with China as central pillar of Pakistan’s foreign policy and has expressed hope Tuesday that the projects under the umbrella of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would infuse a new spirit into the current pace of development projects in the country.

Talking to the media on his return journey from China he reminded that special economic zones would be established along the CPEC and for the purpose of safe and healthy environment trees would be planted along the roads, he added.

The prime minister said that he would complete the unfinished agenda of 1992 by developing a network of motorways and rail infrastructure in the country. He attended the 14th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Heads of Government meeting and said that if his government had not been toppled in 1999, a network of motorways would have been completed, connecting the entire country.

A highway from Torkham to Karachi would also have been completed and the present government would now have been able to utilize its energies to link Pakistan with the rest of regional countries.

The prime minister said the work on Torkham-Jalalabad highway was underway and the government wanted to extend it to the Central Asian Republics. He said the development of infrastructure is a key to progress but expressed his dismay that not a single inch of motorway was extended by the previous regimes.

Earlier, Chairman National Highway Authority (NHA) Shahid Ashraf Tarar in a briefing told the media persons that construction work is in progress to link Gwadar with rest of the country under the CPEC project. He said that work on Western route of CPEC is also in progress from Gwadar to Quetta and from Zhob to Dera Ismail Khan sections. He said a four-lane highway would be constructed from Gwadar to Burhan.

Federal Minister for Planning and Development Professor Ahsan Iqbal told media that CPEC was a collection of various projects and its major four components included energy projects, upgradation of Gwadar, and development of infrastructure and establishment of industrial zones.