PESHAWAR: Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government is committed to facilitating the lower segments of society as per the vision of the State of Medina.
The prime minister said this while inaugurating low-cost family flats for labourers at Regi Lalma in the provincial capital. The prime minister was accompanied by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan during the inauguration of the Labour Complex.
The prime minister said that no attention was paid to the poor class by successive regimes in the past. He said that PTI is the first government, which is focussing on the welfare of the oppressed and neglected people through the provision of health cards and housing facilities.
PM Imran said that it was the responsibility of the state to support underprivileged segments of the society and after completion of their five years, he would like to revisit how much they have been able to lift these segments.
“A UNDP report highlighted that KP witnessed improvement in poverty index from 2013, with most among any province witnessing people going beyond the poverty line,” he said.
He said that the law is equal for all and mafias are trying to get NRO from him, however, they would not succeed in their efforts. “I will never give NRO to them,” he said and vowed to bring them under the accountability net.
Talking about the construction work on Mohmand Dam, the prime minister said that this reservoir will be completed by 2025 and it will irrigate 17,000 acres of land, provide 300 million gallons of water to the residents of Peshawar and generate cheap electricity.
PM Imran said that 10 smaller and bigger dams will be constructed in the country by 2028 to take care of electricity needs and food security of the country.
It is pertinent to mention that 2,056 family flats will be distributed among registered workers of the province through balloting. 3 percent quota has been reserved for widows and 2 percent for differently-abled people. The project also includes a school comprising 30 classrooms.
Following his address at the Labour Complex inauguration, Prime Minister Imran paid a visit to the Mohmand Dam construction site where he said the previous governments instead of building dams for affordable electricity generations, signed exorbitant agreements to make money off the top.
“With these expensive agreements we are bound by, we have to pay them off whether or not we buy electricity from them due to which our capacity payments will jump to Rs1,455 billion by the year 2023,” the PM said while talking to media persons there.
However, PM Imran said that his government is concerned about the future of the nation and not the win in the next elections alone for which they have put 10 projects underway for cheaper electricity that will complete by 2028.
“We are revisiting the agreements with the independent power producers (IPPs) and have signed some new ones which will benefit us with cost-cutting.” He said that at present the full cost of power is not borne by people but they are paying less than the real amount of electricity they are consuming.
He added that with the construction of dams, the country can produce up to 50,000 megawatts of power and it will also help the country with water allocation and agricultural land irrigation.
