Nawaz’s party shows some spine against Taliban

Staying short of publicly announcing a full-fledge military operation against Taliban militants, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday said the government would take every step to bring peace and stability in the country to save the future generations.

“Without eliminating terrorism and extremism, we cannot place Pakistan on fast track of development,” he said while speaking to the parliamentary party meeting of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) which was held at the PM office.

Sources said that a majority of PML-N parliamentarians supported launching the military offensive against Pakistani Taliban in the meeting while few were still favouring peace talks without majority’s support.

The prime minister said that officers and soldiers of the armed forces laying down their lives were their heroes and their blood would not go in vain.

“We are a peaceful nation and believe in peaceful relations based on respect with all our neighbors including India. We need to begin a new era of peace and stability, which will be beneficial for Pakistan as well as the whole region.”

“We have to rebuild the image of Pakistan as a peace loving country,” said the premier, adding that this can be achieved only through hard work and combined efforts of all stakeholders including parliamentarians, civil society, executive, judiciary and defence forces.

About the issue of law and order and terrorism, he said that situation in Karachi has improved and a 40 per cent decrease in the heinous crimes has been observed which is due to the concerted efforts of government and law enforcement agencies.

“We are going through an extraordinary situation, and this situation demands tough decisions,” he added.

Nawaz said the country was facing two major problems; fragile economy and terrorism, adding that on economic front, the government had taken actions which were proving to be fruitful.

He said that economic indicators, despite law and order situation, were positive, adding that a corruption free society and transparent system was the road to progress.

Deliberating upon the energy situation, Nawaz said that though the problem has not been fully resolved yet, the power availability is better this year as compared to last year. This has been due to the payment of circular debt, addition of 1700MW into the system and better management of the distribution network, he said.

“We have more projects in pipeline and hopefully by the end of our tenure we will add another 8,000MW to the national grid. We have to look for our surplus power generation keeping in view our future needs,” the PM added.

He said 36,000MW will be added to the system by the completion of K-2, K-3 civil nuclear power project, Diamer- Bhasha dam, Gadani coal-based power project, Nandipur Power project, Jamshoro power project, CASA-1000 and wind power projects in next 10-12 years.

Discussing the infrastructure policy of the government, the PM said that the Japanese government has agreed to invest Rs 2 billion in Karachi Circular Railway, construction of Lahore-Multan-Karachi Motorway is being planned while work on Economic Trade Corridor, connecting Kashgar in China with Khunjerab and Gwadar in Pakistan has commenced.

Earlier, Federal Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar and Federal Minister for Interior Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan briefed the meeting on the economic and security policies of the government.

Dar said that positive government policies have increased the chances of accessing international capital market and all international financial institutions were engaged with Pakistan.

Nisar said that the National Internal Security Policy (NISP) has been devised and would be implemented after approval of the federal cabinet.