Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Monday that the progress witnessed on theconstruction of dams during the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) governmentwas heartening.
Addressing a function held in in Islamabad in connection with WAPDA’s greeneuro bonds, he paid tributes to all those who were associated with work onBhasha and Mohmand dams. “Today we are doing what we were supposed to do 50years ago,” he said, and added, “Insha Allah, 10 dams, with the capacity ofgenerating 10, 000 additional, electricity, will be built in Pakistan inthe next 10 years. Not only that these dams would also generate clean andenvironment-friendly electricity because in recent years, our country hassuffered immensely due to the phenomenon of climate change.”
He added that Pakistan was developing at a rapid pace in 60s, but sadly notnow. “While on the other hand, India and even Bangladesh are way ahead ofus now,” he said, and added, “The country started going downhill after 1985when Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan People’s Party startedmaking governments at Centre turn by turn.”
PM Imran said the reason why the country today was lagging behind India andBangladesh was due to the short-sightedness of the preceding governments.“It is a long-term planning, which lays the basis of a country’sdevelopment,” he asserted.
He accused the previous governments of preferring short-term gains tolong-term ones even while finalizing energy projects with foreign countries.
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The prime minister told the gathering that for the first time in thecountry’s history, uniform syllabus of education was going to be introducedin the country, and for that the credit went to PTI government. “We alsoplan to provide health cards to each and every citizen,” he added.
PM Imran said increasing population was taxing the country’s resources.“Hopefully, as we build new cities, country’s health will increase and theindustries which had been shut down will revive,” he said.
Showing concern that big cities like Lahore had become extremely pollutedand that glaciers were melting rapidly on account of climate change, theprime minister said, “We had planted 1 billion trees till 2018, and now weplan to plant 10 billion more trees till 2023.”
