Daily Times

KARACHI: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday said the operation in Karachi will continue, as he congratulated the civilian and military law enforcement agencies over their ‘success in bringing peace to the port city’.

The prime minister mentioned the threats of extremism and terrorism and said he was committed to root out the same for good from the country. He said Pakistan, and particularly Karachi, were much better and safer than what they were three or six years back. He congratulated director general Rangers, Sindh inspector general of police and the chief secretary for their success in bringing peace to the provincial capital.

He said in September 2013, he stayed in Karachi for two days and met all political, business and influential people and stakeholders and all of them agreed on conducting an operation to rid the city of extremists, terrorists and law-breakers. He said today the change was significant as foreign businessmen were now coming to the city and interacting with local counterparts. He hoped that in the days ahead, Karachi would be more vibrant and serve as the country’s economic hub.

Addressing the 39th Annual Export Awards Distribution Ceremony under the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), the prime minister announced a cut of Rs 3 in per unit tariff of electricity for industrial users and urged the exporters to translate it into increased exports for the country. He assured that as things improved, more cuts would be made to help the industrial community.

The prime minister said the tariff would be applicable from January 1, 2016 and urged the business community to work harder and produce better quality goods, generate employment and earn foreign exchange for the country. He said his government’s focus was on addressing the three main challenges of improving economy, ending power shortages and countering terrorism, inherited by it in 2013. He said the government was working on short, medium and long term projects to make the country self-sufficient in power generation.

He said the country used to witness 12-18 hours of load shedding, but today it was considerably less and things were improving gradually. He said in financial years 2017-18, 10,000 MW more electricity would be added to the system and another 15,000 MW by the year 2025.

He said the coal from Thar would be used to generate 3600 MW electricity. He referred to setting up of other power plants that were being installed at 40 per cent lesser cost, saving Rs 100 billion to the national exchequer. He mentioned the construction of Diamir Bhasha project that would generate 4500 MW, Dasu Dam, besides the nuclear power plants of K2 and K3, Neelum Jhelum and the fourth Tarbella Expansion project that would make the country self-sufficient. He said work was also going ahead at enhancing road connectivity and mentioned various phases of Lahore-Karachi motorway, western corridor of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor that would link Gwadar, Quetta and other areas of Balochistan with the rest of the country. Work on Sukkur-Multan motorway, he added, would start soon.

The prime minister also inspected 1320MW coal-fired Bin Qasim power project and directed for ensuring its completion by December 2017. He asked the Chinese authorities concerned to take steps for making it completely functional by the deadline of December 31, 2017.