KOHAT: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Saturday paid his respects to the martyrs of the devastating attack on the Army Public School (APS) that took place three years ago in Peshawar. Speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the Women’s University in Kohat, Abbasi said, “When the APS Peshawar attack took place three years ago, all political parties and all our armed forces came together to fight terrorism in the country. As a result of this fight, we have defeated terrorism and today, our schools and mosques our safe,” he added. “Everyone is free to visit markets and live freely in this country.” He said the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government firmly believed in serving the masses with concrete steps instead of paying mere lip service to the public. He said the PML-N always talked about Pakistan and stood for the unity of the country and never divided the brothers. He said a dictator had ruled over the country for eight year, followed by PPP government but no tangible development work could be initiated in the country. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and other areas of the country, the people would only cite the development projects completed by Nawaz Sharif and the PML-N, he said, adding the only reason was because the PML-N had the motto of serving the people. The prime minister referred to his earlier ground-breaking of the dualisation of 128-km Sarai Gambila-Kohat Road and 73-km Pindigheb-Kohat road. He said both roads would be completed at the total cost of Rs 22 billion and Rs10 billion respectively. During the previous regimes, the prime minister said, the area did not witness any development activity and recalled his earlier visit to Kohat. He said the area people were well versed in politics and they could easily discern the difference between hollow slogans and concrete measures. The prime minister also advised his political adversaries to serve the people if they wanted to enlist their support in the next general elections. Published in Daily Times, December 17th 2017.