Daily Times

DADU/NAUSHAHRO FEROZE: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Saturday said that political decisions should be made at polling stations and not in the streets or the courts.

Addressing a public gathering in Naushahro Feroze, the premier said that naysayers tried to cast gloom after July 28 Panamagate verdict as far as the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was concerned, but the party faced the test of time “with dignity and courage”, thus strengthening democracy. “They used to say the party would not accept the court’s verdict, but the PML-N remained at peace and elected a new prime minister for the protection of democracy.

Abbasi said that he was proud of his party leader and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who had been working hard for the country’s development. “Jobs, justice and others basic facilities can only be made available to the people through democracy, so the PML-N wants Pakistan to develop through democracy.”

He said that after the 18th Constitutional Amendment, the PML-N government in the Centre had allowed provinces to work independently, but unfortunately the provinces remained unsuccessful in resolving the people’s issues.

The premier said he knew about the political issues in Sindh, and added that Nawaz Sharif was the only leader who kept the country united.

He called upon the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) to “mull over” consulting the Charter of Democracy signed by the PPP and the PML-N in 2005 to take politics forward. “The Charter of Democracy ensured that politics of vendetta is stopped in country and mandate of the masses is respected. That is not what we see happening now, unfortunately,” he added. He hoped the provincial government of the PPP would follow the policies of its late leader Benazir Bhutto for the region’s development. “The country cannot be developed through empty slogans but required hard work.”

Criticising the PPP and the Sindh government, he said that during the last 15 years in power, the party failed to provide civic and other facilities to the masses.

He said that development projects in Sindh remained uncompleted and now “we were working on such development projects”.

He said that under the leadership of Nawaz Sharif, motorway projects had been started in every province. “Only one motorway project had been started in Sindh during the last 45 years, but now Hyderabad-Karachi motorway had been started, credit for which goes to Nawaz Sharif.”

He said he had visited New Jatoi city of Naushahro Feroze on the invitation of Federal Minister for Industries and Production Ghulam Murtaza Khan Jatoi after the youth of the area raised their demand for jobs. “Public sector jobs should be given on the basis of merit. However, the government can only provide a limited number of jobs. The youth will only get jobs when the economy is strong,” he said, adding that the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate had been raised to six percent, which would definitely help the youth get jobs.

Published in Daily Times, October 8^th 2017.