Nawaz Sharif performed the ground breaking of Sialkot-Lahore Motorway

Lahore : Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif Monday performed the ground breaking of the Rs 45 billion dollar, 89 km long Sialkot-Lahore Motorway.

The four-lane road to be constructed jointly by the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) and National Highway Authority (NHA) would connect the two major business centres and would be completed in around 24 months.

Director General FWO Major General Muhammad Afzal in his briefing said the FWO would perform the maintenance of the motorway and also contribute to the national exchequer through the collected taxes. He also briefed him about the numerous other road construction projects that were linking vital trade centres of the country and contributing to the national progress and development.

The motorway would begin at the Lahore by-pass interchange on N-5 which would also connect it to the M-2 near Kala Shah Kaku. It would end around 15 km west of Sialkot.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif unveiled the plaque of the project. Minister for Defense Khawaja Muhammad Asif, DG FWO Major General Muhammad Afzal were present.

Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif Monday asked the people to support the government in materializing the 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 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 ground breaking of the Lahore-Sialkot Motorway, he asked people to discern between politics of progress and prosperity, and the antics being staged on the containers. “It is called progress. We have also mounted on a container but it has no semblance with their politics. Their politics smacks of  retrogression and anarchy. Ours is a container of prosperity and progress whereas their containers represent stalemate,” he added.

The Prime Minister said his political foes were dreaded with such dawn of fast paced prosperity and had fears 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 the 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 people at protest containers, he said. Those elements wanted to disrupt the economic prosperity as they did not want end to poverty,loadshedding 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 is 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 Prime Minister said 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.

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

He also announced that a separate road from Sialkot to Daska-Pasroor would also be constructed. The Prime Minister said people should ask previous rulers why their agonies of power outages had worsened and why they were forced to bear 16 to 18 hours loadshedding. He said when the PML-N government was ousted in 1999, the motorway had been constructed and now it was being multiplied and expanded from Gwadar to Khunjrab, from Quetta and Karachi, from Lahore to Sukkur,besides, Hazara motorway was also being constructed.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said the year 2018 would herald an end to load-shedding as various power plants were being installed across the country in Kasur, Thar, Bhikki and Port Qasim. The government would not only overcome the deficiency, but also provide cheap electricity, he said, adding that fruits of prosperity had started oozing out from the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

He thanked the Chinese government for becoming a partner of the Pakistani government in the country’s development and making investment to steer it out of the power crisis. He said Pakistan Railways had also been overhauled for which he congratulated Railway Minister Khawaja Saad Rafiq.    Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif and Minister for Law and Justice Zahid Hamid and other notables were also present on the stage.

The Prime Minister said the PIA’s services had been improved to a great extent as it had recently launched Premier Service that would also start from Sialkot. He said the plan by Sialkot businessmen to launch a new airline was laudable, hoping that the fate of the city would change in the near future.

He said after completion of Sialkot-Lahore Motorway, the travel duration would shrink from three hours to just 50 minutes and announced that access roads from Sialkot and Sambrial to motorway would also be constructed.

The Prime Minister also announced the construction of Sialkot-Kharian Motorway, besides Metro Bus and Orange Train projects would also be launched in the city. Appreciating the role of residents of Sialkot, he said it was a city of Allama Muhammad Iqbal and many other stalwart personalities and said that he always received warm affection and promised them gifts in the form of mega development projects in future.

The Prime Minister said there was no match for the affection and patriotism of the residents of Sialkot.    He said progress and prosperity was written on the wall for the countrymen and no one could snatch it.   He also lauded the sacrifices of the army men, personnel of law enforcement agencies and the people of Pakistan in the fight against terrorism. “We salute them for fighting bravely the menace of terrorism and defeating it,” he said and assured that terrorism would be eliminated forever.

Nawaz Sharif hoped that he himself would inaugurate the motorway project after its completion before raising slogan of `Long live Pakistan’ and joining hands with the party leaders at the stage.