ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf said on Saturday that no other government in the last 25 years had shown as much progress as the current Pakistan People’s Party-led government had, DawnNews reported.

“I challenge that the amount of work carried out by this government is more than the cumulative work done by governments in the last twenty five years,” he said.

Ashraf said this while addressing notables from Gujar Khan at the Prime Minister House here in Islamabad. He said that instead of the ‘Sasti Roti’ and laptop schemes, the PPP-led government had established the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP), hailed by the rest of world as an ideal step towards poverty eradication.

Speaking of his nomination as Pakistan’s prime minister, PM Ashraf said that no common political worker of any party had ever been elevated to the position of prime minister but PPP was the only party which had selected him to lead the country.

He also said that the judiciary and the media were state institutions and therefore, the government wished to make them stronger and more stable.

Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said the PPP believes in strengthening the institutions of country.

The appointment of Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan as Chairman Public Accounts Committee and Fakhurddin G. Ibrahim as Chief Election Commissioner, are proof of its efforts and commitments to strengthen the institutions.

The PM added that despite the forecasts by media and analysts, the PPP-led government would be completing its five-year term.

PM Ashraf further said that the government was against the ‘opposition for the sake of opposition’ approach. He added that his government was prepared to prove at every forum that no other government had shown the kind of progress as they had. He told how Pakistan became an exporter of wheat from being an importer of wheat.

The PM assured the public in his speech that the upcoming general elections would be independent and transparent. All fake votes had been removed from all voter lists, he added. He also said that in Gujar Khan alone, 121,000 bogus votes had been removed from the electoral lists.

Speaking of Fakhruddin G. Ibrahim’s appointment as the Chief Election Commissioner, PM Ashraf said that it proved that his government wished to stabilise the state institutions.