Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday said that the federal government was committed to uniform progress and prosperity in all areas, including the upliftment of backward areas like South Punjab, by spreading a vast network of development projects.
Addressing a huge public gathering, the prime minister said that when they came to power, inflation had reached over 40 per cent, but his leader, Nawaz Sharif, decided to sacrifice politics for the sake of the country.
He added that the incumbent government’s hard work and pro-development policies had capped inflation below 2.4 percent while reducing the interest rate to 12 percent, which benefitted investors, business people, and farmers.
The prime minister, expressing his views in the local Saraiki dialect, said that Nawaz Sharif and he had a strong relationship with this region. During the year 2010, when flood water and destruction were witnessed everywhere in these areas, he, as a servant of the area, worked day and night to alleviate the sufferings of the masses.
Shehbaz Sharif reaffirmed his commitment to lowering electricity bills and announced the establishment of a cancer hospital in DG Khan.
“I have come to convey that Nawaz Sharif and Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif are working day and night for the uplift of entire province, particularly for the South Punjab,” he added.
The prime minister said that during his previous tenures, he had worked for the establishment of Danish schools and hospitals, provision of free medicines and livestock, award of scholarships, and allocating extra quota for the area’s youth in different sectors.
The prime minister said the chief minister of Punjab was spreading a network of hospitals and roads in the province, inaugurating the facility of Kissan cards and different health and education centres, and working to establish Nawaz Sharif Cancer Hospital in Lahore.
He also announced the construction of a cancer hospital in DG Khan and establishing a university in Rajanpur.
The prime minister said that an era of progress and prosperity had dawned upon the area where youth would get job opportunities.
Federal ministers Ahsan Iqbal, Rana Tanvir Hussain, Attaullah Tarar and PM’s advisor Rana Sanaullah accompanied the prime minister.
The prime minister reiterated that seeking foreign loans was not a solution to their economic issues or the country’s future.
Without loans, they would change fate of the country by striving day and night and shedding sweat and blood, he said, adding that he did not believe in hollow slogans, and promised to ensure progress and prosperity of the backward areas.
He maintained that the country’s economy had stabilized. The prime minister also praised all the leaders of the region for working hard to uplift their respective areas and mentioned the minister for power, who was working hard to provide relief over power tariffs by bringing reforms.
The prime minister further said peace was necessary for progress and development. The enemies of Pakistan, including Khwarij, were carrying out terrorist activities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces, and the security forces were making sacrifices in the fight against terrorism, he said and urged the people to remember these sacrifices.
“Without the elimination of terrorism, the country cannot move on the path of progress,” he opined and, without naming a political party, said mounting attacks on Islamabad in the past had caused immense losses as a one-day strike caused billions of losses to the national kitty.
The prime minister also expressed the resolve that together, they would defeat the enemies of Pakistan.
Shehbaz Sharif declared that the national economy was on the fast track and vowed to beat India in terms of development speed.
“The people of south Punjab, I haven’t given anything to you, but given your love for Nawaz Sharif, me and the party, I promise by God that even if I work throughout my life, I cannot repay that favour,” he added.
Earlier, Federal Minister for Power Sardar Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari, in his welcome address, said that the people had converged in huge numbers to acknowledge the prime minister’s development agenda, adding that Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif had given the area an Rs131 billion development package.
Under the prime minister’s leadership, the government-controlled inflation, secured national interests and resolved issues like IPPs.
