Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan declared on Friday that the country has signed a contract for the supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG), which will save the country $300 million per year.
The prime minister said that his government had been trying to strike this agreement for the past year at the ground breaking ceremony of the Central Business District in Lahore. “When a country faces a difficult situation, it must consider ‘out-of-the-box’ solutions,” he said. He said, “Pakistan went through a decade of darkness.”
The Prime Minister had said that Pakistan was facing a fiscal deficit because it was forced to take foreign loans because the reserves of the country had decreased and its currency had lost its value. ‘These issues were inherited by this government,’ he said, adding that unless and unless it produces income, the government will not solve this problem.
Touching on the LNG agreement with Qatar, the Prime Minister said he was proud to announce that, as a result of the deal, Pakistan will save $300 million per year. “And in ten years, Pakistan will save $3 billion,” he predicted.
The Prime Minister hailed the Business District Project in Lahore, saying it would create billions of dollars of wealth for Pakistan. He claimed that it was past time to halt Lahore’s horizontal expansion, recalling that the city used to end at Zaman Park when he was a boy. “The federal government will earn Rs250 bn from taxes in the first phase [of the Central Business District] project,” he said.
The prime minister said that tall buildings can be built in Gulberg and on Ferozepur Road when the Walton airport is de-notified as per the project’s schedule. “These areas can then become Lahore’s economic hub,” the prime minister said, regretting that the horizontal expansion of Lahore had produced a mirage of the city’s problems. He said, “The entire city’s sewerage is going into River Ravi.” “The sewerage goes down the river. “A lot of people drink river water,” he said, adding that Lahore’s water table is also decreasing.
Imran Khan said Pakistan could generate Rs6,000bn in revenue from these commercial ventures, according to estimates. When no one clapped at the announcement, he appeared irritated. “I believe everyone in the front row has had a late night because you all appear to be sleeping. No one clapped at the announcement that it was going to produce Rs6,000bn, he said. “Aleem Khan, because you are in business, you should know about these things.” The belief that the project would be detrimental to the environment was dispelled by Imran Khan. “I consider myself to be Pakistan’s greatest environmentalist,” he said. “In Pakistan’s history, no one has ever thought of planting trees. It was we [the KP government] who were dreaming about planting trees in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
No trees will be cut down to make way for the scheme, according to the prime minister. “And we have equipment to move it to another place, even if a tree is brought down,” he said.
