KOHAT: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said that the masses will once again repose confidence in the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in the upcoming elections scheduled for July 15, 2018, based on their performance in government so far.

Speaking at a public meeting at Azeem Bagh here on Saturday, PM Abbasi brushed aside apprehensions that the elections could be delayed or held early or that the government could be replaced with one of technocrats.

He said the PML-N and like-minded parties would not allow democracy to be derailed under any circumstances, and would ensure that the government completed its term.

Recalling the gruesome attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar, which occurred on the same day in 2014, the PM said the situation had become safer and people were safe in schools, mosques and bazaars. He said that the wounds of the incident were still fresh in the minds of the people. He said by the grace of God and the efforts of security forces and political parties, the government had defeated terrorists and ensured the safety of the lives and property of people. He expressed resolve that the government would continue this fight till the last terrorist in the country was eliminated.

Abbasi assails performance of KP govt

The PML-N introduced a politics of morality, truth and service to the people, he said, unlike opposition parties which believed in washing their dirty linen in public and piling accusations on the government.

Earlier, PM Abbasi laid the foundation stone of a women’s university campus at the Kohat University of Science and Technology. He also inaugurated construction work on the Kohat-Sarai Gambela Road and the Kohat-Pindigheb Road. He was accompanied by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Engineer Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, PML-N’s KP president Engineer Ameer Maqaam, National Assembly deputy speaker Javed Murtaza and the party’s district leadership.

The prime minister said that the PML-N had initiated development schemes worth billions of rupees in KP, unlike the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) which, while being in government, believed only in paying lip service.

The PM lashed out at the provincial government for not starting a single mega project aimed at the uplift of the people of KP.

He said KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and PTI chairman Imran Khan, who had termed Lahore’s Metro Bus System a jangla bus, had not launched a transit system in KP even after receiving a heavy loan from the Asian Development Bank.

Mr Khan had said that there were more than 300 opportunities of producing electricity in the province but the KP government had failed to produce a single watt in four years, lauding the federal government for controlling loadshedding — its timings and duration. He said the PML-N remained the most popular party of the country and there was no doubt in whether it would come to power again despite the conspiracies cooked up by the “hidden forces”.

The prime minister said that the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) would be brought to the mainstream and merged with KP, in accordance with the wishes and consent of the tribesmen. He further explained that he had been on a whirlwind tour across the country for several weeks, announcing development projects worth billions of rupees, and added that they would not be able to complete the projects before June 2018. When these projects were complete, the people of Pakistan would observe real change in their lives, he said.

Localities within 5km of a natural gas source would get the facility on priority forthwith, he said, adding that this was now a law. “I have asked member of the central executive committee Abbas Afridi to prepare a plan for provision of electricity and gas to all areas on which work will start before Dec 31, 2017,” he said.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2017