ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that no country can progress with criminal in the power corridors adding that it will take time to fix country’s system.
Addressing a ceremony in Islamabad, the Prime Minister said that India is not ahead of us in any field, we have to rely on our capabilities. We have to get out of the feeling of inferiority. Allah Almighty has blessed Pakistan with innumerable resources.
The Prime Minister said that unfortunately when criminals attain power then no country can develop. We have to fix the country s system, people have become habitual of the old systems and it takes time to change the system.
He said that the word enlightenment was first heard in Musharraf era, it was to please others. The Prime Minister said that Pakistan had nothing to do with 9/11. Pakistan made a mistake by participating in the war of others. Now we have to move towards an independent Pakistan. Prime Minister Imran Khan said that Pakistan must always aim to be self reliant and not be afraid to have lofty dreams.
“People talk about projecting a soft image for Pakistan. What does a soft image even mean? Will the world begin to think very highly of us then?” said the premier.
He said that Pakistan must not fall for this misconception. “This is having an inferiority complex. When a country loses self-confidence, it begins to think of how to please others,” the prime minister said.
He said that during our tenure, the national debt increased by Rs 11,000 billion, out of which Rs 6,000 billion was paid as interest on loans taken by the previous governments. The rise in the value of the dollar has added an additional Rs 3,000 billion to the debt burden. Due to Coronavirus, tax revenue and the value of rupee decreased against the dollar, he added. Imran Khan said that biggest problem of Pakistan is water. Long-term plans are not made because of short-term thinking. Today, fifty years later, two big dams are being built in Pakistan. Unfortunately, elections were planned in the country but not dams, said PM. He said previous governments signed the most expensive power generation agreements in the Subcontinent and ignored building dams to generate cheaper and clean-green energy. He said under these agreements, the government is compelled to spend billions of rupees as capacity payments to Independent Power Producers even if we do not have the need to buy electricity from them. He said these capacity payments will likely to reach 1,500 billion rupees in 2023. Imran Khan said that it is the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government, which decided to build two dams in Pakistan after a gap of five decades. He said Mohmand Dam is likely to be completed soon. He said the government is focusing on hydropower to generate cheap electricity and to overcome climate change hazards as well.
