Gilani wants rivals to serve people instead of misleading
JALALPUR PIRWALA,June 4 (APP)-Prime Minister, Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani Saturday said that PPP’s political rivals should serve the people instead of misleading them.While addressing a public meeting here at Public School ground, the Prime Minister said he had come there to genuinely serve the masses and not to gain any political mileage.Gilani said, “We have set the standard of serving the people irrespective of their political affiliations.”He said that the enormity of challenges faced by the country is such that no single political party can resolve it.The Prime Minister said it was the first PPP-led elected government,after Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, that presented the fourth budget.The PM said that rumour mongers made propaganda but the PPP-led government continued to serve the people with diligence, adding that it’s prerogative of people to decide who should represent them.
Gilani said PPP will continue to serve the people as long as the people would want.He said that the price of oil was 30 dollars per barrel at the time when the PPP-led government took over, however, it has risen up to 123 dollars per barrel now.
Gilani said that the present government has added 2000 megawatt power to the national grid so far and promised to increase power generation by 30 per cent by the end of the five year term.
He recalled that it was Benazir Bhutto Shaheed who predicted in 1994 that the country would face energy crisis and then she opted for agreements with IPPs. “Our government was ousted on baseless allegations”,he said. The Prime Minister said the PPP-led government had launched the Thar coal project, started work on the Bhasha dam and finalized an agreement with Iran to address the energy issue.
Gilani said the country would have bought electricity had it been just a matter of money but added that it also needed planning. Gilani said that power generation projects took at least five to seven years to complete and the duration extended to a decade in case of a mega project.
He said the PPP had a history of adopting people-friendly policies. He said that growers of the country were prosperous today due to agriculture-friendly policies and impoverished segments of society were receiving financial support on sustainable grounds under the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP).
He said that door-to-door poverty survey was in progress under the BISP and the government had issued instructions that the poor should also get relief in electricity and gas bills.The Prime Minister said that PPP leaders sacrificed their lives for the
rights of the people and the party would keep moving forward in the light of their vision for development of the country.
Gilani said that he had worked for 22 years with Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto during which they served jail hardships and faced pressure but never compromised on the rights of  people.
He said that development projects would usher in a new era of prosperity in Jalalpur Pirwala. He said that construction of roads and bridges would generate economic activities to bring about prosperity to the people.
The establishment of IT university and Virtual University would link Jalalpur Pirwala with the rest of the world and youths of the area would emerge as skilled workers and professionals to get jobs in foreign countries and contribute to the national development process.MPA, Syed Ahmad Mujtaba Gilani also spoke on the occasion.
MPAs including Syed Nazim Hussain Shah, Syed Abdul Qadir Gilani, Malik Mohammad Amir Dogar, Malik Ahmad Hussain Dehar, besides Rana Qasim Noon, Ayub Ghallu and Prime Minister’s media coordinator Khawaja Rizwan Alam were also present.