ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday urged people of Pakistan to donate generously in the dam fund for the sake of future generations.
“It is very unfortunate that political governments of the past preferred expensive electricity through imported fuel over affordable hydel power plants,” he said while addressing a fund-raising event in Karachi.
He said the past governments increased debt burden on Pakistan’s economy and that was why we were unable to build a dam with public funds. Hence, the entire nation needed to mobilize for construction of dams, he added.
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Imran Khan said China had 84,000 dams, India 5, 000, while Pakistan has only two large dams.
“We will have to construct dams to store water for agriculture, electricity, and drinking purposes,” he said.
He said every task could be met when a nation launches cohesive and unified efforts for the purpose.
The prime minister said we needed to raise 30 billion rupees annually and we will hopefully collect the required funds in five or seven years for construction of Diamer-Bhasha and Mohmand dams.
He thanked the Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar for initiating the campaign for raising funds for construction of dams to protect future of the coming generations.
Imran said if cash flow for the dams continued we would achieve this target in five years.
He said he would fully cooperate with the Sindh government for the betterment of Karachi. He said terrorism had declined in the city, but street crimes had increased.
“The reason behind rise of street crimes is lack of education,” he said.
The PM said about 0.25 million Bangladeshi immigrants and Afghan refugees were living in the city who got into crimes after not finding jobs.
He pledged to restore Karachi as the city of lights, build Northern Bypass for easy traffic flow of vehicles, give 20 years’ master plan, improve intracity railways system and establish water recycling plant in Korangi Industrial Area.
