TAXILA, April 3: President Pervez Musharraf will announce a multi-million development plan for the cities of Taxila and Wah Cantonment during his visit scheduled for Saturday.

Speaking at a press conference here on Tuesday, Federal Minister for Labour and Manpower Ghulam Sarwar Khan said the president would also be performing the ground-breaking of a labour colony and the Taxila Chowk intersection.

The minister said it would be the first visit of a president to the historic city for which the authorities had started to make extraordinary arrangements.

According to Mr Khan, the people of Taxila supported the policies of President Musharraf.

“Although the president is in uniform but there is no martial law or dictatorship in the country as all the state institution are working properly.” He said there was no restriction on political activity, media and other state institutions.

International media observers have acknowledged that Pakistan is on the path to progress and that the opposition wants to derail the development process through agitation and exploitation of irrelevant issues, he added. “As the opposition parties have been exposed now, the people have rejected their politics, while the lawyers’ community has also distanced itself from them,” the minister said.