Expats repose trust in Sharif brothers

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said at a reception hosted in his honour in London, that the role of expatriate Pakistanis is of vital importance in the progress and prosperity of the country and he believes that the foreign based Pakistanis are rendering invaluable services to their country.
He urged upon expatriate Pakistanis to invest in their country and fully benefit from the incentives and facilities being offered by the Punjab government. He said that the Punjab government had created a supporting atmosphere for investment and all out facilities were being extended to investors on priority basis. He said that the provincial government was providing all out encouragement to foreign investors in the province and maximum facilities were being given to them under one roof.
The Punjab CM said that the provincial government was taking all possible steps for the improvement of law and order situation, and special measures were also taken for the protection of the lives and properties of investors due to which the province was emerging as a hub of safe foreign investment. He said that a number of projects related to public welfare were being executed with the cooperation of Turkey, Iran and other countries. He said that United Kingdom (UK) based Pakistanis could play an important role for the progress and prosperity of Punjab through investment, collaboration and public-private partnership in different sectors. He said there was no doubt that Pakistan was rich in natural resources, however it was lamentable that the nation was lagging far behind the other countries due to inefficiency and indifference of the rulers. He added that there was a need for collective efforts to put Pakistan on the road to progress and development and cooperation of overseas Pakistanis was of vital importance for this purpose.
The CM further said that the federal government had pushed the country into darkness due to its incompetence and corruption, and despite entering the 21st century the country was still heading towards decline and downfall. He said that the reason for this was the policies of inefficient rulers to safeguard their narrow personal interests. The CM said that despite the tenure of four and a half years of the current rulers, the country was still far from its goal. He said that the fruits of democracy had been wasted by loot and nepotism of the federal rulers. He also said that the worst energy crisis had halted the process of progress and development of the country.
Furthermore, he said that the federal government was showing an unjust attitude to Punjab over the issue of distribution of electricity. He said that the whole country was facing a severe energy crisis, but Punjab which was the most populated province of the country had been more affected by the power crisis than any other province. Shahbaz said that without relying on the centre, generation of energy under a reliable system was on the top of the agenda of the Punjab government and during his recent visit to Turkey, Britain and Germany he had held successful negotiations for benefitting from the technology and expertise of these countries. According to him, agreements had also been reached to overcome the energy problem. The CM said that besides security problems, energy shortage had become a big challenge for the country. He said that Pakistan was facing a shortfall of 6000 megawatt (MW) electricity and there was a big gap between supply and demand due to which every sector had been badly affected. He said that there were vast opportunities of generation of electricity from coal, water and wind power while more than 500 million tons of coal reserves were also available for the purpose. Moreover, he said that Pakistan had ample sunlight throughout the year and solar energy could be helpful in solving the energy crisis. He said that there was a wide scope in the solar energy sector in Pakistan and the Punjab government wanted foreign companies to invest in the solar energy sector. He said that important progress had been made in this direction during his recent visits and a German company would soon start solar energy projects in Punjab.