ISLAMABAD: The energy situation has been changed in the country and another 10,000 MW electricity would be added into the national grid by early 2018.
Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms Ahsan Iqbal Tuesday said this while addressing the consultative workshop on mid-term performance of the government and future plan, organised by Planning Commission of Pakistan.
The workshop was attended by Minister of State for Education Baleegh ur Rehman, Secretary Planning Yusuf Naseem Khokhar, Secretaries from other concerned ministries, members of the Parliament and other officials.
The minister said due to sensible policies of present government, the country is now far better both economically and socially than that of 2013. “The country’s overall situation in every sector of life has witnessed a huge change during previous 30 months and currently the country is moving towards an economically stable and peaceful country”, he said.
Ahsan said the PML-N government inherited an energy starved country and law and order situation was also worst at that time. The government took many steps including initiating energy projects of about 16000 MW and Operation Zarb-e-Azb which is yielding positive results and due to this operation the law and order situation of the country has remarkably improved. He said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had pledged with the nation in his election manifesto to take country out of crisis and now the government is successfully implementing on those pledges.
He recalled that about 16 years ago, then PML-N government had planned a Vision 2010 and if the plan vision was implemented then the country would have been much more developed now but unfortunately the successive governments did not pay attention to it. He said at that time the government had planned a roadmap for the uplift of different sectors including energy, agriculture, education and infrastructure.
The minister said the government was also paying special attention on the uplift of education sector and it had raised the allocation for education projects from Rs 40 million to Rs 78 million in two years. He said not the government is also planning to initiate Pakistan-US Education Corridor under which about 10,000 Pakistani youth would be sent to US for higher education.
Ahsan invited the economic experts, educationists, media and other concerned people to guide the government to perform better for the prosperity and development of the country. He said the government had also initiated a game changer project of China Pakistan Economic Corridor in which $46 million worth of projects mainly in energy and infrastructure would be executed in the first phase.
