SHEIKHUPURA: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday, in a thinly veiled reference to the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), hit out at his critics, saying, “those who are responsible for load shedding [in the country] are now threatening to hold protests”.
He was speaking at a ceremony to mark the inauguration of the 1,180-megawatt (MW) Bhikki Power Plant in Sheikhupura.
The Bhikki power plant is the first ever LNG-based power plant in the country. It will, for now, contribute 717MW to the national grid. It was completed over a period of 18 months.
“We have completed a massive project in 18 months. It is unbelievable that we have done this. Other projects in this country have been under construction for 30 years,” the PM said.
“If we had not personally supervised this project, it would have taken 15 years as opposed to 18 months,” he said.
Earlier this week, the PPP had warned it would stage protests across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa if excessive and unscheduled power load shedding in the province was not curtailed immediately.
Dismissing the opposition party, the prime minister said, “If you had worked with honesty, this country would have been successful today.”
“We are trying to fix your mistakes,” he added. “When we came to power in 2013, we picked up work on these development projects.”
The prime minister spoke extensively on the development projects undertaken during his tenure, repeatedly criticizing other parties for not doing enough within their own constituencies.
“Why weren’t the motorways ever expanded? Why is it that the federal government had to take the initiative of starting new infrastructure projects in Karachi?” he said.
“The provincial government should fix the law and order situation in Karachi and create a scheme for drinking water/public transportation in Sindh. We are happy to do this but shouldn’t the Sindh government have taken the initiative on its own,” he said.
“We have broken the back of terrorist organizations. Was this only our prerogative? Why didn’t past governments do anything when they were in power?” he said.
