Nawaz hits out at PPP, PTI for creating chaos

• PM urges opponents not to indulge in blame game

Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday urged his political opponents not to indulge in the blame game, else they would end up in oblivion as the people would only remember the Pakistan Muslim League-N for its service to them.

Addressing a gathering after inaugurating the operationalisation of the first phase of the Bhikki power plant, adding 717 megawatts to the national grid, he said the newcomers in politics can only lie, do sit-ins, level baseless allegations and make tall claims.

“Fear Allah, stop politics of allegations, else you too will go into oblivion and in the end only PML-N will be in the fore,” he said. Despite their efforts, they had failed to win hearts of the people and mentioned the defeat of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) candidate in a by-election.

“We earlier won by 8,000 votes in 2013 general election, but yesterday we got over 22,000 votes, despite the fact that all other political forces backed the PTI candidate,” he said. The prime minister was also critical of the previous Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government in its failure to address the serious issue of power outages.

He said that those, who were responsible for the current loadshedding, were today threatening to lodge protest. “You must be ashamed of yourself. “Had you considered Pakistan your own country and served the nation with honesty and dedication, we would not have faced such a bad situation,” the prime minister said.

He said that Balochistan was abandoned by the previous governments and now several development projects were near fruition there. He regretted that the previous governments never bothered to undertake any development project in the province. He said that the federal government was pleased to undertake several development projects in Sindh including Karachi, despite the fact that it was provincial responsibility.

The prime minister said that there was no such tendency in the country to complete such large projects in a short span of 18 months. The operationalisation of the Bhikki plant in 18 months was a new chapter in the country’s history of progress and prosperity, he added. He said that there had been a trend in the past to complete a project costing Rs 10 billion in Rs 100 billion and mentioned delays in completion of the Lowari Tunnel, Nandipur, and the Neelum Jhelum.

“Had (Punjab Chief Minister) Shahbaz Sharif not taken personal interest and not monitored the project, the cost would have escalated,” he said and referred to Haveli Bahadur and Baloki projects, where the savings were to the tune of Rs 154 billion. “Had we moved at this pace in the past 70 years, Pakistan would have been an economic power today,” he said.

He said that the delay in Haveli Bahadur Shah and Baloki projects was due to delay in shipment of turbines and all efforts were being made to complete the projects in time. Every month, a new project would be inaugurated, he added. He also said that the Chashma 315 megawatts would be operational in May while many others were in the pipeline. Several projects would be completing by the next year and around 10,000 megawatts would be available by June next year.

Nawaz said that the Punjab government had spent from its own resources on the Haveli Bahadur Shah, Baloki and Bhikki projects. He said that strict action would be taken against those, who were responsible for the current loadshedding. He said that there had been a seven per cent increase in the demand of electricity against four per cent in the past. “Pakistan is moving ahead at a fast pace as is evident from the growing demand,” he added.

He said that the Bhasha and the Dasu dams would complete in the next few years, adding 9,000 megawatts to the system. Prime Minister Nawaz termed the completion of the gas power plant in 18 months a record and said owing to transparent bidding, the government had saved a huge amount of Rs 50 billion. The plant would provide power at the cheapest rate of Rs 7.37 per unit, he added.

He said that apart from power generation projects, his government was working on road building projects and pointed to efforts for completion of the motorway from Karachi to Peshawar by 2020. He said that Rs 1,000 billion was being spent on road building projects alone across the country. New airports and other projects were being built, he said.

He said that there had been marked improvement in the working of the railways, while a new airport was being constructed for Islamabad. The prime minister was accompanied by Punjab Governor Muhammad Rafique Rajwana and Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Minister for Petroleum Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, State Minister Abid Sher Ali, Chinese Ambassador Sun Weidong and provincial ministers.

On the occasion, Chief Minister Shehbaz thanked the prime minister for sparing time for the inauguration of the project built in the shortest possible timeframe and at record low cost. He lauded the dynamic leadership of Nawaz Sharif for his commitment and vision to address the serious issue of power shortage and said he took the country forward despite the problems created by the sit-in protestors and their delaying tactics in taking the country forward.

CONSPIRACY: He said that the PTI’s sit-in in Islamabad was a heinous conspiracy against the country as its protestors refused to budge even during the visit of the Chinese president to Pakistan. The visit had to be postponed for over 10 months and the country’s march towards progress and prosperity delayed, he added.

Shehbaz said that the project along with other similar projects in Punjab were a glaring proof that the government was committed to ending the curse of loadshedding for good. He termed it a landmark project and said the current project was far more efficient than those in Haveli Bahadur Shah, Baloki, Sahiwal and Guddu.

The chief minister said that no project in the world could become operational in a short period of 18 months after facing teething problems. He was critical of those, who looted billions in the Nandipur project and said the PML-N government had to spend an additional amount of around Rs 20 billion to make it operational. He said that the PPP government had initiated the project without any transparency as it was supposed to complete at a cost of Rs 33 billion.

“Those, who looted this nation, today shout at the top of their voice in claiming that they served the people,” he added. While recalling the statement that the Panama verdict would be remembered for centuries to come, Shehbaz said what the prime minister had done for Pakistan would be cherished by the people for at least next 40 years, the operational life of the power plants.

Quaid-e-Azam Power Plant Chief Executive Officer Aahad Cheema said that the Rs 77 billion project, which would run on liquefied natural gas, was the most cost-efficient plant and would serve as a model for future projects. He said that Rs 16 billion would be saved in the next 12 years in operations and management alone, while overall Rs 320 billion would be saved over the project life of 30 years. He also gave a comparison with other projects and said Bhikki would generate power at a rate of $466 per KW.

The prime minister was briefed about the salient features of the project. He was taken around the control room of the plant and was informed about its highly efficient environment-friendly operations. The plant would save Rs 320 billion in operational cost alone in next 30 years. The highest output gas plant was built at the lowest cost ever leading to the lowest production cost in the world of $466,000 per megawatt.

The Bhikki power plant, a key project of the Punjab government, upon completion would provide a total of 1,180 megawatts. The project runs on General Electric 209HA Combined Cycle Technology, being executed by Harbin Electric International as EPC contractor. The project, near Sheikhupura, has been completed jointly by AEPL, General Electric, Harbin Electric International and their construction contractor Tianjin Electric.