10 dams to be built in Pakistan in next 10 years, claims PM Imran
Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Monday that the progress witnessed on the construction of dams during the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government was heartening, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
Addressing a function held in in Islamabad in connection with WAPDA’s green euro bonds, he paid tributes to all those who were associated with work on Bhasha and Mohmand dams. “Today we are doing what we were supposed to do 50 years ago,” he said, and added, “Insha Allah, 10 dams, with the capacity of generating 10, 000 additional, electricity, will be built in Pakistan in the next 10 years. Not only that these dams would also generate clean and environment-friendly electricity because in recent years, our country has suffered immensely due to the phenomenon of climate change.”
He added that Pakistan was developing at a rapid pace in 60s, but sadly not now. “While on the other hand, India and even Bangladesh are way ahead of us now,” he said, and added, “The country started going downhill after 1985 when Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan People’s Party started making governments at Centre turn by turn.”
PM Imran said the reason why the country today was lagging behind India and Bangladesh was due to the short-sightedness of the preceding governments. “It is a long-term planning, which lays the basis of a country’s development,” he asserted.
He accused the previous governments of preferring short-term gains to long-term ones even while finalizing energy projects with foreign countries.
The prime minister told the gathering that for the first time in the country’s history, uniform syllabus of education was going to be introduced in the country, and for that the credit went to PTI government. “We also plan to provide health cards to each and every citizen,” he added.
PM Imran said increasing population was taxing the country’s resources. “Hopefully, as we build new cities, country’s health will increase and the industries which had been shut down will revive,” he said.
Showing concern that big cities like Lahore had become extremely polluted and that glaciers were melting rapidly on account of climate change, the prime minister said, “We had planted 1 billion trees till 2018, and now we plan to plant 10 billion more trees till 2023.”