Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Wednesday reiterated his call for free and fair elections and voiced concerns regarding a government, non-representative of the masses, assuming power.
“You can see what happened in Balochistan and the Senate. It is not in the country’s best interests,” said the premier while addressing a news conference in Islamabad.
Reflecting on media regulations, the prime minister stressed that censorship cannot prevail in the modern world. “There are many senior journalists present here who will agree with me that censorship of today cannot be how it was earlier. Access to information has become easier through social media and the internet.”
Referring to the media being suppressed, he said censorship could only provide short-term results as truth always prevails. He added that censorship is against national interests.
“Our tenure ends in three days and I could not be prouder of the fact that our government never censored the media. It is unfortunate that even today we are involved in such things. We need to come out of it. Free and fair media is as important for the country as elections.”
PM Abbasi proceeded to laud his government’s five years in power. He claimed the country was in a much better shape today than when Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) took assumed charge in 2013. “Our government was undermined through sit-ins, constitutional and judicial hurdles, yet we delivered in all aspects, whether it was gas or electricity, creating a better investment market and GDP growth.”
“Despite facing challenges in courts, the Parliament and streets, the government did not deviate from its agenda of development projects. We implemented much-awaited reforms in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), said the prime minister.
The chief executive of the country also recalled watching former prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto inaugurating Lowari Tunnel when the former was in grade 10. “Even that project was completed by PML-N last year.”
Government’s performance in oil and gas sector
The premier went on to brief media on the government’s performance in oil and gas sector. Claiming to have addresses shortage of gas in the country, PM Abbasi said Pakistan was being dubbed as a “success story” in the Liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector with lowest price of imported gas. “Additional imported gas will be also be provided to domestic consumers. At least two million new gas connections were allotted in our tenure.”
He added that power generation from gas helped save billions through production of cheap electricity. “116 oil and gas discoveries were made during the last five years – which added 35, 000 barrel of oil and nine million cubic feet of gas to the system. Out of the 445 wells drilled, 225 were exploratory wells.”
“We have also made arrangements for the North-South Pipeline with cooperation of Russia and China while the Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India Pipeline (TAPI) project will start delivering by 2020,” he said. “Pakistan has signed a gas import deal with Qatar on lowest rates in the world.”
He said the government had introduced environment and vehicle friendly diesel and petrol in reduced prices despite “opposition by vested interests.”
“Furnace oil is not used anywhere in the world due to its adverse implications. “There has been no import of furnace oil for eight months.”
The Express Tribune
https://tribune.com.pk/story/1722539/1-pm-abbasi-reiterates-call-free-fa...
