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  • Mar 12th, 2006
  • Comments Off on Booming economy to benefit masses: Musharraf inaugurates CNG pilot project
President General Pervez Musharraf on Saturday expressed firm resolve to pass on the benefits of the booming economy to the common people and said that the government was working on a comprehensive plan to improving the living standards through poverty alleviation and creating new job opportunities.

"We are fully focused on improving the lot of the people by alleviating poverty, creating employment opportunities and controlling inflation," he said while inaugurating a CNG System Pilot Project for Lilla town in District Jhelum.

The CNG project has been planned for the areas where supply of natural gas through pipelines is not currently feasible.

Under the new system, executed by SNGPL, the gas will be provided through containerised cascades.

President Musharraf told a large gathering at Lilla town that addressing the problems of the common people was among his top priorities.

He said the government was working on a comprehensive program to provide gas, electricity and clean drinking water to people in every nook and corner of the country.

"Unlike hollow promises the politicians made in the past, I assure you to deliver on my words," the President said to the cheering crowd, adding that the government now has enough resources to spend on people's welfare.

He said that soaring international oil prices were contributing to inflation in the country but the government was spending billions of rupees to minimise its impact on the common people.

The President assured the people that the government was working on a plan to control inflation and alleviate poverty through creating new job opportunities in various fields of economic activities.

The President said he envisaged the idea of LNG and CNG projects for domestic consumers after increasing demand of gas and electricity, particularly in the rural and remote areas.

For the pilot project in Lilla, a gas station has been set up from which gas will be provided to the people through pipelines extended up to the town.

Sui Southern is also working on a similar project, on experimental basis, in Gwadar, he said, and added that the concept would help the government in providing gas to remote, especially hilly, areas where supplying the fuel through main pipeline is not feasible.

President Musharraf told the gathering that huge gas reserves have been discovered at Gurgari in NWFP and pipelines were being laid to extend gas supply from the new source to DI Khan and Peshawar city.

Similarly, the government is working on a major plan for supply of gas to Bhawalnagar, the President said, and vowed that supply of the fuel would be ensured throughout the country.

President Musharraf said Pakistan needed energy to sustain higher economic growth and fast-paced industrialisation and the government had, therefore, drawn up an extensive program to meet the country's growing energy needs.

He referred to the various projects to generate energy through hydel, gas, coal and alternative sources to meet rising industrial demand that in turn will help reduce poverty through more job creation.

On providing clean-drinking water, the President told the gathering that the government was working on a plan to install filter plants in every place where a population is above 1000.

He also shared with the gathering his three-pronged '2016 water vision' that envisages increasing capacity of existing reservoirs like Tarbela and Mangla, a Rs 66 billion project of canals' brick-lining to conserve water as well as building five major dams to meet impending water shortage.

The President said he was personally involved in the plan for building major water reservoirs and promised the construction Bhasha, Kalabagh, Akori, Munda and Kuram Tangi dams by the year 2016.

"More water availability will give a boost to our industry and agriculture and help the government's plans for poverty alleviation," he added.

On law and order in the country, the President noted with satisfaction plans by the Punjab government to set up police pickets at every 25-kilometre distance and hoped it would effectively check crimes.

About the situation in Balochistan, the President said that only a handful of anti-development and anti-democracy tribal 'chiefs' were creating law and order situation as an overwhelming majority of the Baloch people were patriotic Pakistanis and wanted to see their province progress and prosper.

"These tribal chiefs have no interest whatsoever in the wellbeing and progress of common man and subject their own tribesmen to torture. They are against the construction of roads and exploration of gas reserves and even opposed building of schools to keep their people illiterate and backward," he added.

These tribal chiefs, he said, run their private armies and buy expensive weapons by snatching money from people and blackmailing them.

"This has to be controlled as no country can tolerate this," the President said and expressed firm resolve of the government not to let these tribal chiefs blackmail the government.

He said that thousands of people of Kalpar and Missouri sub-clans, who were evicted by these tribal chiefs from their ancestral homes, were now returning.

The President said their lands have been given back to them, and assured full support of the government to help them live in peace.

President Musharraf expressed firm resolve of the government to establish writ of the law in the province. He, however, made it clear that the Frontier Constabulary and not the army was engaged to ensure peace there.

President Musharraf underlined the need for ridding the society of extremism anti terrorism, saying that the country did not face any external threat but threats from within in the form of the twin menaces.

The extremists, he added, were causing harm to Pakistan and bringing a bad name to religion Islam.

He said the handful of extremist elements with narrow mind and short-sightedness have taken upon themselves to impose their will on the moderate majority.

The President asked the people to stand up to such elements who were trying to push Pakistan into backwardness and help the government in steering the country forward as a moderate and dynamic Islamic country.

He asked them to check the extremist tendencies and spread of hatred through distribution of hate literature and misuse of loudspeakers at places of worship.

The President assured the people of the Lilla town that their demands relating to electricity and water supply have been conveyed to Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi who would look into their feasibility.

Vowing to take the country to new heights, the President said that "Pakistan of today is not the Pakistan of 1999, when we were requesting every one for assistance. Today the country is on the rise and has broken the begging bowl," he added.

The government's prudent economic policies have pulled the country out of the IMF programme and placed in on the path of robust growth, he added.

"The country now has a stature in the comity of nations and its booming economy is attracting foreign investment from all over the world," he said and promised that benefits of the country's strong financial position would be delivered to the people at the grass roots level.

Earlier, the President unveiled the plaque to formally inaugurate the CNG System project.

Governor Punjab Khalid Maqbool, Chief Minister Pervaiz Elhai, Information Minister Rashid Ahmed, Minister of State for Petroleum Naseer Mengal and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani were also present on the occasion.

Copyright Associated Press of Pakistan, 2006


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