"We shall always put Pakistan first, and steer it to new levels of development, so pay no heed at all to strike calls as we have sincere intentions to serve the country and take it forward in accordance with its enormous potential," he declared.
He was addressing a gathering of members of parliament, local government leaders, notables and agriculturists.
The President''s interaction marked the first of his visits to districts he has decided to undertake in order to bolster the pace of development at the grassroots level and translate his vision of transferring benefits of economic gains to the common man. Pakistan, he said, needs to build at least three dams to sustain its march on the path at high economic growth.
"We have no choice but to build dams, it is not a matter of one dam, we will have to build three dams, otherwise, our agricultural land will become futile due to scarcity of the precious resource," he said.
Punjab Governor Khalid Maqbool, Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, Federal Minister for Agriculture Sikandar Bosan, Federal Minister for Industries and Special Initiatives Jahangir Tareen were also present.
Later, the President inaugurated a model agriculture farm, jointly developed by the Punjab government and Army Veterinary Corps. He also inaugurated brick-lining at a water channel and visited Mona Depot of Remount and Veterinary Corps.
President Musharraf underlined the vital importance of water for growth of agricultural and industrial sectors and said availability of water will ensure irrigation of more lands as well as generation of inexpensive hydropower.
He regretted that the leadership in the past ignored the construction of new water storage facilities for three decades while other countries went ahead with comprehensive plans for conserving the natural resource.
Enumerating steps taken by the government as part of its water vision, the President said the brick-lining of thousands of water channels across the country would help save water and bring more land under cultivation.
He said far-reaching development plans being pursued by the government would bring about a visible improvement in the lives of people in key sectors including health, education, agriculture, industry, etc.
In this respect he cited efforts aimed at poverty reduction and said the provision of electricity and safe drinking water all over the country by year 2007 would quicken the pace of development.
He particularly referred to goals of improvement in the health sector and said activation of basic health units and rural health centres at the primary level, establishment of tehsil hospitals at secondary level and improvement in the quality of services and equipment at district hospitals would provide adequate medical care to the common man. "All this is aimed at ensuring health facilities for the poor at the basic level."
Speaking on empowerment of people, he said the local government system has laid the foundations for sustainable democracy in the country and asked Nazimeen to devolve power to Tehsil and union council level for rapid development at the grass roots level. President Musharraf urged the masses to make concerted efforts to stem extremism from the society. He stressed that there was no room for extremism in Islam, which stands for tolerance, peace and harmony. "The people should help stop the misuse of loudspeakers at places of worship and cooperate with the police in checking such extremist tendencies."
He lauded the performance of Mandi Bahauddin district in terms of progress in brick-lining of watercourses and assured his financial support for building a district headquarters hospital and a road connecting it with Salem interchange.
Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi said the Punjab government is fully focused on development of new districts and would complete brick lining of water channels ahead of targets.
"The development taking place in the country has been possible due to far-sighted policies and economic achievements made under the leadership of President Musharraf in the last six years," he said. He extended Punjab''s unconditional support for President Musharraf''s efforts for taking decisions on difficult issues.
District Nazim Chaudhry Riaz Asghar, earlier, welcomed the President and said his wise policies have set the pace for sustained development at grass-roots level.