Photo courtesy PID
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday reiterated his government’s resolve to eradicate terrorism from Pakistan by using all available resources.
Addressing a gathering in Dera Ismail Khan, he said the federal government would work with security forces and provinces to eliminate terrorism, adding that a meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC) would be convened in a few days to review the prevailing security situation.
There has been a marked surge in incidents of terror across Pakistan, especially in Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, with militants of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claiming responsibility for a hostage crisis at a Counter-Terrorism Department center in Bannu last week, as well as a suicide bombing in Islamabad.
“Security forces bravely combatted the terrorists in Bannu,” he said. “Acts of terrorism have once again seen a rise in the recent weeks. Those who embraced martyrdom in Bannu are Pakistan’s heroes. The nation will remember them,” he said, recalling a recent meeting with soldiers who had been injured in Bannu.
Sharif also discussed the surge of terror in Balochistan, stressing the government was “working hard” to prevent it. “We will employ all resources to uproot terrorism to bring peace in Pakistan,” he stressed, adding this included extortion and similar crimes.
Development projects
Discussing the state of development works in Pakistan, the prime minister lamented that the country was led to disaster due to the wrong policies of the previous government. Regretting that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led government had not completed necessary infrastructure work in D.I. Khan and Zhob, he claimed both the provincial and federal governments had failed to invest in it.
Referring to the Chashma Right Bank Irrigation Project, he said it would irrigate millions of acres of land in Chashma and Mainwali. “This government has eight months. We will work day and night,” he said, acknowledging the need to build new dams to ensure prosperity in the country. For this purpose, he said, he would ask WAPDA Chairman Lt. Gen. Sajjad Ghani to devise a suitable plan.
On the construction of a new airport for the region, the prime minister said it was necessary as the old airport often gets flooded and spending money on it would be akin to wasting it. To ensure the airport is properly utilized, he said, the government would set up an industrial state.
Earlier, the prime minister claimed that he had not realized the extent of the economic disaster inherited by his government from the PTI. However, he maintained, the efforts of the ruling coalition had averted default. Nonetheless, he warned, there were still significant economic challenges, as the country’s had suffered losses of $30 billion due to this year’s floods, and the situation had been worsened by global inflation and recession, the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the exorbitant price of gas and oil in the international market.