PESHAWAR: Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that all mafias have joined hands to get NRO, reiterating his resolve that he would not grant reprieve to anyone.

He was speaking at a ceremony held to inaugurate a low-cost housing colony for labourers and industrial workers here on Wednesday. Khyber Pakhtun­khwa Governor Shah Farman, Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, ministers and parliamentarians also attended in the ceremony.

The prime minister said the country could make progress only when there was supremacy of law, adding that it was impossible to give NRO to the rich and have a separate law for the poor. “All mafias have joined hands and are trying to get NRO, but I will not do it.”

Mr Khan said Pakistan was a big dream but no one explained what the dream was, and Allama Mohammad Iqbal was a great exponent of the dream. One of the objectives of the creation of Pakistan was to lift the poor but nobody paid attention to it, he added.

Inaugurates low-cost housing colony for labourers in Peshawar; visits Mohmand Dam project

The prime minister said the housing scheme for workers in Peshawar was launched in 2011 but it remained incomplete since then because it was meant for the poor labourers. He said he wanted to see how much the condition of the poor had improved after the five-year tenure of the PTI government.

He said the KP chief minister, ministers and lawmakers of the PTI might not know why the people of the province gave them a two-thirds majority in the house for two consecutive terms as it had never happened in the past.

Prime Minister Khan said that a UNDP report published recently stated that the graph of poverty had sharply gone down in KP among all four provinces since 2003. The report also said that the gap between the haves and the have-nots had narrowed in KP as compared to other provinces, while the human resource made more progress in KP than other provinces, he added.

“This is the reason that the enlightened people of KP gave an overwhelming majority to you [PTI] for the second consecutive term,” the prime minister said.

Terming the Sehat Sahulat Programme a big revolution, he said the health scheme would bring about a major change in the province and the government might not need to set up hospitals in future because the private sector would make investment to develop healthcare facilities. He said the private sector would also expand the health network to the rural areas in the province because of this programme.

PM Khan was also looking upbeat about the progress on the Mohmand Dam project adjacent to provincial capital Peshawar. He visited the site and said the project was inaugurated two years ago and today he witnessed a remarkable progress.

The prime minister said the dam would generate 800 megawatts electricity after its completion in 2025. He said that 17,000 acres of agricultural land would also be irrigated from the reservoir while Peshawar would be provided 300 million gallons of water for drinking purpose. He said a major hydel power project would be completed after 50 years in Pakistan which is a big achievement of his government.

PM Khan said the ongoing era would be a decade of dams during which a total 10 dams would be built across the country that would ensure supply of cheap electricity to the energy-starved people. He said the country would face a big issue in the shape of water shortage and food insecurity that was why Pakistan needed to construct more dams.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2021