PM makes big entry in Sindh with mega schemes

• Nawaz announces healthcare scheme, university, airport, metro bus service for Hyderabad; ‘Govt to eliminate electricity loadshedding by next year completely, as new Pakistan in making’

Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on Monday announced the establishment of a university, launch of his Healthcare Insurance Scheme, an international airport and metro bus service for the Hyderabad city.

Addressing a jam-packed gathering of enthusiastic workers at a Pakistan Muslim League-N convention here, he also announced Rs 500 million for the development and upgradation of the Hyderabad city. He said that Hyderabad would be linked soon to the rest of the country with a network of six-lane motorways, providing speedy access.

Announcing an initial grant of Rs 1,000 million for the university, the prime minister also directed the PASSCO to increase its purchase of wheat crop from Sindh from previous 80,000 tonnes to 100,000 tonnes. He was generous to accept the public demand of providing electricity to as many villages as needed, besides providing supply of the natural gas to the area.

He assured the residents of Hyderabad that survey teams would soon visit the city for data collection and then he along with programme in-charge Maryam Nawaz would come there to hand over health cards to the needy. He urged the people to question the previous rulers for their apathy towards projects like extension of motorway from Lahore to Karachi and launching of more power projects to cope with growing electricity needs.

He apologised to the workers, who had to return without hearing him owing to the shortage of space at the venue and assured them that he would again visit them keeping in view their enthusiasm and passion. “Pakistan is changing. A new Pakistan is in the making,” he said. “We are happy that peace is returning in Karachi with business activity reviving and labourers working in a peaceful atmosphere,” he said.

He said that Hyderabad had also been purged of terrorists, who were now on the run. The prime minister reiterated his resolve to eliminate the menace of terrorism in total. He said that peace was also restoring in Balochistan where a vast network of roads was being developed under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. He said Pakistan would soon get rid of unemployment, poverty and illiteracy, and medical treatment facilities would be made affordably available for everyone.

He said that Hyderabad would also benefit from that development as the city had earlier been deprived of clean drinking water with its road infrastructure in a shambles. He said that the economic zones would also be developed throughout the country, besides establishing colleges and the universities. Today, heaps of garbage and pollution featured the Karachi city, he said and recalled its previous condition when there had been complete peace with massive economic activities taking place.

He said that the peace was again returning to Karachi as investors were back to hold their business meetings there which had earlier been switched to Dubai due to law and order situation there. Prime Minister Nawaz said that the motorway network could not be expanded from Lahore since 1999; however his government took up the task and motorways were being built throughout the country.

He said that the loadshedding of electricity had been remarkably decreased and reiterated his resolve to eliminate it completely by the next year. He said that once the network of motorways was developed, one would be able to easily travel from Karachi to Peshawar in a day. He said that the country’s internal demographics were changing owing to development activities and road infrastructure being developed from Gwadar to China border.

During the electioneering, he said that the people should question the leaders of previous ruling parties as to what they had done to the country and plunged it into darkness. “This is a very valid question. After this, you must decide as to who deserves your vote,” he urged the workers who had been chanting slogans. The workers were carrying party flags and placards inscribed with pro-Nawaz Sharif slogans.

The prime minister said that he had witnessed a great enthusiasm in Thatta, Balochistan, Punjab and even Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during his visits but the enthusiasm in Hyderabad was exemplary. Earlier, Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique said that the PML-N had made its presence felt in the province as the party had emerged on the provincial scene to provide alternate leadership to the masses in Sindh.

With the support of people and like-minded parties, the PML-N would form the next government in Sindh in 2018, he said. “We stand with those, who chant ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans, and will ferociously resist and counter anti-Pakistan elements by banishing their politics forever,” he said, adding the plight of the Sindh’s people had not changed, first they were subjugated by the Musharraf regime and now by the PPP government, which had turned the whole province into ruins.

After 18th Amendment, he said that the powers were devolved to the provinces and when Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif could bring changes in Punjab, then why the PPP leadership could not bring such change in the lives of Sindh people. Referring to the PPP government in Sindh, he said a party wanted to win election on the basis of mere slogans or just posing itself as an oppressed.