FAISALABAD: The chief minister has rejected the Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari’s claim that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and Gwadar were his initiatives.

Addressing the local bodies convention at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad here on Saturday, he said: “Why had he not laid the foundation stone if both projects [CPEC and Gwadar] were his initiatives”?

He asked Mr Zardari to stop cheating the masses who had already been suffering lot for the last seven decades.

He said the cost of Neelum-Jhelum project was Rs80 billion during the Zardari term [as president] which stood incomplete and “now its cost is Rs500bn.”

Rejects Zardari’s claim on CPEC, Gwadar

The chief minister announced an information technology university and the Metro Bus Service for Faisalabad and said work on both projects would start this year.

He claimed that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had saved Rs112bn in three power projects -- Bhiki, Haveli Bahadar Shah and Balloki -- which was unprecedented.

He said the 1,250MW Bhiki project would start production next week. He claimed that loadshedding would be eliminated by the end of this year or at the start of 2018.

He said: “We are being asked what would we do with the surplus electricity. We have plans for surplus electricity and will apprise the masses if they vote the PML-N.”

He said the IT university would be constructed on the old vegetable and fruit market which would also be a skilled training centre for countless students. He termed the university a revolutionary project for the district.

Talking about the completion of the children hospital, he said it would be made fully functional this year as the machinery was being provided and the high commissioner of Pakistan in London had been approached for the children healthcare experts.

He said the high commissioner had been asked to contact the child specialists of Pakistani origin settled in the UK and a [government] team would visit them within a week and hire their services [on their demands].

Mr Sharif termed the criticism of Metro Bus an insult to the humanity and the nation and said “the people [PTI and PML-Q] who used to dub it Jangla bus, are trying to introduce it in Peshawar.”Shedding light on the Safe City project, the chief minister said it would be initiated and completed this year.

The projects inaugurated by the chief minister included children hospital, girls hostel at the UAF, French water supply project and Khidmat centre. He offered fateha for CTD inspector Fida Husain in Samundri, who lost his life in an ‘encounter’ with terrorists a couple of weeks ago.

The chief minister also visited the residence of State Minister for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali and met his father Sher Ali, former mayor of Faisalabad.

Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2017