FAISALABAD: President Mamnoon Hussain has hit out at people criticising the Nandipur and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) projects, and urged the business community to support the government in development schemes to change the fate of the country.

“By 2018, there will be no or nominal power outages in the country as the government is working on different projects,” he said while addressing a meeting with textile exporters on Wednesday. Mr Hussain said no mismanagement or corruption had been detected in the Nandipur power project case and some people were pointing fingers at the project.

He added that the LNG project was a blessing for Pakistan and industrialists should help government complete it.

Take a look: Loadshedding to end by 2017: PM

According to the president, China, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and some other countries had extended a helping hand to Pakistan to complete a number of projects.

He said that after realising and witnessing the benefits of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), some central Asian countries had started constructing roads to connect with it. He added that the CPEC would strengthen the country’s economy. President Hussain claimed that the country had been facing an energy crisis due to ill-conceived policies of the previous governments. He added that they had done whatever they wanted to do, but did not build dams or power projects.

“If the Kalabagh dam has become disputed, why has work on other dams not started as yet?” the president asked.

He said “we have developed a culture of criticism in Pakistan. This is not a good sign”. He asked the businessmen to find a solution to these problems before taking up their own issues. Mamnoon Hussain asked businessmen to pay their taxes and convince others to do the same as the government could not do anything without funds.

The president stressed the importance of being honest and asked those present to boycott corrupt people and their practices.

He added that the Trade Development Authority had been made functional and was exploring new international markets.

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2015