SIALKOT: Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal has said that the continuity of government policies is vital for political and economic stability in the county.

Addressing a meeting of lawyers at the District Bar Association (DBA) in Naro­wal on Sunday, he accused Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf of indulging in negative politics and said Imran Khan should make a ‘new Khyber Pakh­tunkhwa’ first before trying to make a ‘new Pakistan’.

Know more: `[Diaspora politics][1]`

Mr Iqbal pledged to end backwardness in Narowal and said the government would soon acquire 100 acres of land near the city to build a campus of the University of Gujrat.

MPA Khawaja Waseem Butt, DBA president Farooq Umer Akbar, general secretary Rana Kanwar Tahir Yaseen and Narowal DCO Syed Najaf Iqbal also attended the meeting.

Earlier, talking to journalists at the Institute of Engineers Pakistan in Lahore, Mr Iqbal said the national economy had suffered billions of rupees of losses because of the Islamabad sit-in.

He said Imran Khan was in fact afraid of losing votes in 2018 general election because he knew that the projects started by the PML-N government would be completed by then and the party’s popularity would increase.

The minister said that politics of sit-in could be described as “economic terrorism” because it had badly affected labourers and farmers as well as the country’s exports.

He said the World Bank, Moody’s, Asian Development Bank and other international institutions had praised Pakistan’s past one year’s economic performance and said it was moving in the right direction.

The image created by Imran Khan had harmed the country, he said, adding that the PTI chief had wrongly claimed that projects to be completed under the Pakistan-China Economic Corridor were only to benefit Punjab. “Imran should answer whether the hydropower project in Karot, Quaid-i-Azam solar park in Cholistan and energy park in Thar are for Punjab?”

Mr Iqbal said the PML-N government had launched development projects without any discrimination and always focused on the projects which cost less and ensured maximum progress in the country.

The government is also working on cost rationalisation of different projects so that unnecessary spending could be curtailed.

The minister said “Roshan Pakistan or Naya Pakistan” could be made only if the challenges facing the country were handled with unity. The government was trying to make Pakistan a financially strong country by following the prime minister’s economic agenda, he added.

Published in Dawn, November 3rd, 2014