ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday once again hit out at the top leaderships of opposition parties, saying that “no foreign country would come to their rescue now”.
He made the remarks during the inauguration of Rawalpindi-Karachi bound Sir Syed Express train service at Rawalpindi Railway Station. The new train will travel from Rawalpindi to Karachi via Faisalabad, Khanewal, and Hyderabad.
While bringing Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) co-chairperson Asif Azli Zardari into his line of fire, PM Imran said, “No king [foreign country’s ruler] would help get them a National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) now.”
He blamed the current state of the economy on the corruption of the governments in the last 10 years. “How is it possible that only after a decade we have been buried in debt.”
The premier added: “The opposition says that accountability proceedings against their leaders are political victimisation but the people of Pakistan are fully aware of the truth.”
He said that the opposition can cry foul as much as much as they want but they will be held accountable for their plunder of Pakistan. “They [opposition leaders] will be held accountable because they have made my people suffer.”
While talking about the recent decline in rupee against dollar, the prime minister said, “If the Sharif and Zardari families even bring back half of the wealth they have stolen then the rupee’s value will shoot up.”
He added: “In neighbouring India, the national railways makes a profit but unfortunately here it is still being run in a loss even seven decades after the independence…. The answer is simple it boils down to corruption.”
Meanwhile, the prime minister also spoke out to almost 10 million followers on Twitter congratulating the power ministry for reaching the highest ever power supply at 22,550 megawatts in national grid.
PM Imran added that the current power supply is almost 3,000 megawatts more than the maximum supply last summer.
“As committed, our government is cracking down on gas theft. Since mid-April, the campaign against gas theft has traced and disconnected over 18,000 illegal connections, with a monetary value of over Rs2.3 billion,” he wrote on the micro-blogging website.
Agencies add: Prime Minister Imran Khan has directed the authorities concerned for a more robust campaign against gas pilferage.
He was chairing a high level meeting on matters pertaining to gas supply in Islamabad on Wednesday.
The Prime Minister stressed for indiscriminate action against the elements involved in gas theft and said such elements should be exposed.
Special Assistant for Petroleum Division Nadeem Babar briefed the Prime Minister about the successes achieved so far in the campaign against gas pilferage. He said eighteen thousand gas connections were removed over the last two months of the elements involved in gas pilferage. As a result of these steps, 2.5 billion rupees worth of gas has been saved from theft.
The special assistant for Petroleum Division also apprised the Prime Minister about the gas demand and supply and steps taken to meet gas requirements in the coming months.
The special assistant also briefed the meeting about the progress made so far on the 1122 kilometer long North South Gas Pipeline Project.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister congratulated the Ministry of Power over ensuring “the highest every power supply of 22,550 megawatts to the country’s national grid.”
“I want to congratulate the Power Ministry. On 2nd July we reached the highest ever power supply at 22,550 MW in the national grid with the system running smoothly across the country; almost 3000MW more than the max supply last summer,” he tweeted.
In another tweet, the prime minister said as committed, his government is cracking down on gas theft. “Since mid-April, the campaign against gas theft has traced and disconnected over 18,000 illegal connections, with a monetary value of over Rs 2.3 billion,” he added.
The Prime Minister expressed satisfaction over the power system running smoothly across the country.
To ensure uninterrupted supply of gas, he said the government was cracking down on the theft of commodity.
Meanwhile, the role of departmental cricket ended with Prime Minister Imran Khan’s approval of recommendations of a Task Force on cricket affairs in Pakistan.
Prime Minister approved the recommendations of the task force for the new structure of domestic cricket in the country as the Chief Patron of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).
The Task Force on cricket had forwarded its recommendation to the prime minister for reforms in domestic cricket structure.