-Claims govt promoting technical education, IT sector for
economic growth, job creation
-Says Pakistan was not created to make Nawaz, Zardari rich
-Inaugurates 3 tunnels at Swat motorway, new academics Blocks at Malakand University
From Our
Correspondent
MALAKAND: Pakistan needs wealth creation projects to pay off foreign debt and save money for education, Prime Minister Imran Khan stressed on Friday.
Addressing a ceremony in Malakand, Prime Minister Khan said Lahore’s Ravi City and Bundal Island projects will lead to wealth creation. The projects initiated by the construction industry and two dams being built after 50 years will also help create wealth, he added.
He pointed out that the government is building houses for low-income people in Pakistan for the first time.
The prime minister said tourism alone can fetch huge revenue that can cut external deficit. “Swat witnessed an unprecedented number of tourists over the last two years. If tourism picks up, people of Pakistan won’t have to go abroad [in search of greener pastures]. Malaysia generates a whopping $20 billion through tourism, and Turkey $40 billion,” the prime minister highlighted.
Switzerland that earns $60 billion through tourism can’t even match the beauty Pakistan has been bestowed with, he said.
Unfortunately, PM Khan lamented, the country’s agriculture sector is still using outdated and inefficient methods. “We are going to bring in a new agriculture policy next week that will alone lift the country,” he disclosed.
Mr. Khan once again slammed the Opposition and said that Pakistan was not created to make PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif and PPP co-chairman Asif Zardari rich. He was addressing the inaugural ceremony of a newly-established block at the University of Malakand in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said that over the last 30 years, corrupt leaders continued to steal money from the national kitty.
“The thieves themselves don’t know how much they have stolen from the country,” PM Imran Khan said, adding that it is the stolen wealth that has compelled their sons and daughters to lie to the public.
“What’s the use of amassing wealth [through unfair means] when you have to either end up in the hospital or in jails,” he said.
PM Imran Khan said that the PML-N repaid Rs20,000 billion worth of loans, together with interest, in two-and-a-half years, while the PTI government repaid loans worth Rs35,000 billion, with interest, within the same time frame.
“Our friends helped us out, so we saved the country from becoming a defaulter,” the premier said.
He further added that when so much money goes into the repayment of loans, nothing is left in the national exchequer to invest in education, hospitals, or the construction of roads.
Criticising the Opposition, the Prime Minister said that this country was “not built to make Sharif and Zardari rich like [Indian industrialists] Tata and Birla.”
Following construction of Chashma Right Bank Canal (CRBC), he said over 300,000 acres of land would be irrigated in DI Khan and adjoining districts that would bring green revolution in southern districts of the KP.
He said the area on right bank of the River Indus was the most suitable option for Olive plantation and a substantial revenue could be generated by promoting its cultivation, besides, saving hefty revenue being spent on edible oil’s import.
The Prime Minister also hinted to soon announce a new policy for the further promotion of agriculture sector in the country.
Imran Khan said promotion of tourism in the country was the cornerstone of PTI government’s policy and the domestic tourism had now taken off, especially in the KP. The premier later also inaugurated three newly constructed tunnels at the Swat Expressway.
