Daily Times

SIALKOT: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday asked the people to support the government in materialising mega projects aimed at unprecedented progress and prosperity in Pakistan and reject the ‘container politics’, which only created anarchy and lawlessness in the country.

He said that in the next two years, a number of power and infrastructure projects would be completed, heralding alleviation of poverty and removal of people’s deprivations.

Addressing a huge public gathering after performing groundbreaking of the Lahore-Sialkot motorway, he asked people to discern between politics of progress and prosperity, and the antics being staged on containers.

“It is called progress. We have also mounted on a container but it has no resemblance with their politics… Ours is a container of prosperity and progress whereas their containers represent stalemate,” he added.

The premier said his political foes were dreaded with such a dawn of fast-paced prosperity and had fears that if Nawaz Sharif remained in power during the next two years, their petty politics would end forever. He said those elements were given the mandate to stage protests, whereas the government enjoyed the mandate to construct motorways. They wanted to let the country’s youth down, but the PML-N government would not allow such elements to halt progress, he said, and expressed the resolve to end unemployment.

The prime minister asked the gathering to decide whether they wanted stability or lawlessness, peace or anarchy, economic prosperity or strikes, prosperity or poverty, peace or agitation. “The shadow of disappointment painted by retrogressive elements was receding, adding to the frustration of the people at protest containers,” he said. Those elements wanted to disrupt economic prosperity, as they did not want an end to poverty, load shedding and unemployment, and could not afford the countrymen to tread the path of progress and development, he added.

He said the government’s efforts and agenda for development were very well known to the people. “It is the path of peace, love, sincerity, harmony and progress. The prospects of good fortune are knocking at our doors and cannot be turned away. Good omens seldom knock at the doors and if not given space, they recede back,” he maintained.

The premier said that those launching protest movements had failed to attract masses at their rallies from Peshawar to Rawalpindi and Rawalpindi to Islamabad.

“Even the crowd (today) in Sialkot is much bigger than their protest movement rallies. This is the (real) movement. This is the movement for development. This is the public passion for development in the country,” he remarked.

Nawaz, mentioning the significance of the occasion, said that it would be a unique day for the people of Sialkot, as it would connect them with the whole of the country. The 89km motorway at a cost of Rs 43 billion would be completed within two years, he told the gathering.