DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Hitting out at the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and their recent defeat in a by-election in Peshawar, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday said that opponents of his party – the pakistan Muslim League-N, would be wiped out from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the next general election, to be held in 2018.
He was speaking at a public gathering after performing the ground breaking of a motorway linking Dera Ismail Khan with Hakla as part of the western alignment of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The total stretch of the motorway would be 285 kilometres that would be completed within two years with the cost of Rs 129.782 billion.
The project is part of the western route of corridor. The motorway project comprises several bridges and interchanges. “Holding protests is the opposition’s fate. Let them protest while we work for progress,” Nawaz told the gathering. “Those who promised a new Pakistan have not even been able to create a new Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” he said while lashing out at the PTI-led government.
By the year 2018, they (PTI) would lose Khyber Pakhtunkhwa too, he said. “I had always wanted to visit Dera Ismail Khan. A railway track will run through Dera soon, as the area will be connected to Sindh and Balochistan,” he said, and announced Rs500 million fund for Dera. He announced an agriculture university in the city.
Addressing the crowed, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islami-F chief Fazlur Rehman said that they want peace, progress and a strong democracy in Pakistan. “We will not let this conspiracy against democracy flourish,” he said. The opposition had every right to protest but criticism has its limits, he said. He also said that the prime minister was ready to face a commission.
Earlier, the prime minister performed ground breaking of the Dera-Hakla Motorway. Pakhtunkhwa Governor Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, federal minster for housing, provincial opposition leader Lutfur Rehman and a large number local people attended the ceremony that was held in Yarik area near Dera.
Carrying flags, the people gathered from Dera, Tank, South Waziristan, Bannu and Lakki Marwat districts also raised slogans in favour of the prime minister and the federal government. National Highway Authority (NHA) Chairman Shahid Ashraf Tarar briefed the prime minister on technical aspects of the motorway project.
With completion of the western route of the CPEC, the less-developed areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces would be largely benefited and pace of development would be expedited there. Earlier, Fazlur Rehman presented tradition gift to the prime minister upon his arrival in the area.
