SHORKOT: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday said that politics was not a one-day or five-day test match, as it required sobriety and vision for being all about public service, not commotion. Terming the politics of an opposition party as ‘dirty’ and ‘theatrical’, he said, “Politics is not a theatre, one-day or a test match, which creates commotion just for sake of publicity.”
“Politicking at the container is never called politics. The sobriety I talk about requires a vision.
It teaches to think before you speak,” the prime minister said while addressing the groundbreaking ceremony of Shorkot-Khanewal section of the M4 Motorway between Multan and Faisalabad.
He said he always remained extra careful in selection of words, contrary to an opposition party that used derogatory language. It also used improper words during its electioneering in Azad Kashmir elections, but people showed maturity and outrightly rejected this ‘dirty’ politics, he added.
The prime minister said they (PTI) were not getting any support for their much-trumpeted movement because the people only needed the politics of progress, prosperity and poverty alleviation. Performing the groundbreaking, the prime minister said the government had saved Rs 4 billion of public money from this road contract, recalling a historic saving of Rs 100 billion from the contracts of three LNG-based plants.
Cost escalation of projects from Rs 10 billion to Rs 50 billion had been a practice in the past that had now been abandoned, he added. Pointing at a briefing chart, he also informed the audience about the countrywide network of motorways worth Rs 850 billion, being developed by his government. He said the previous governments failed to expand Peshawar-Islamabad-Lahore motorway developed by his government during his last tenure. “Why these (motorways) were not expanded. Why only we are taking it forward? Why no one else thought about the road infrastructure? Rather, the country was dragged into darkness, what to talk of roads construction,” he said, referring to the energy crisis, what he also reiterated to overcome by 2018. He said that contrary to the previous notions of ‘bankruptcy’ and ‘failed state’ about Pakistan, the country’s economy had taken a turnaround with record high foreign exchange reserves and an established currency value. “Even the international institutions and reputed international newspapers and magazines are acknowledging this positive trend,” he said.
Nawaz said the entire country, including Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan, would benefit from the infrastructure being developed under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which was an unprecedented gift from China worth $46 billion. He said the government was equally serving all sectors, including farmers, industrialists and the common man, and added that the prices of fertilisers would be further reduced to uplift the agriculture sector.
Nawaz said the motorways and GT Road would also be linked to each other for facilitating the people and for easy transportation of agricultural produce.
“This is our vision. No one else had such a vision. This is for you, for the people of Pakistan. This did not start from here, but from China border,” he said.
He said that power plants were also being developed apace, while steps were being taken to overcome the gas shortage. “The government is not just thinking about 2018 or the next elections, but it is thinking about the next 50 years,” he added.
The prime minister said that Gwadar would be made an international city by developing a port or an airport. He said the enemies did not like these development projects, and prayed to Allah Almighty to “protect these from an evil eye”.
He directed the National Highways Authority (NHA) to provide Bahawalpur a link to the motorway.
