Rashakai Economic Zone is a transformational project: Pervez Khattak

NOWSHERA: Federal Minister for Defence Pervez Khattak said on Sunday Prime Minister Imran Khan would lay the foundation stone for the Rashakai Economic Zone on November 21 that would change the fate of region.

“Rashakai Economic Zone is part of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor cluster of projects and will go a long way towards fetching massive investment to the province and creating a large number of jobs,” he said while talking to the media after addressing different functions in his hometown of Nowshera. Minister for Labour and Culture Shaukat Yousafzai, National Assembly Standing Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Dr Imran Khattak, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf candidate for PK-63 by-poll, Mian Umar Kakakhel, Muttahida Labour Federation KP chapter president Muhammad Iqbal and others were present on the occasion.

Pervez Khattak said a large number of industrial units would be set up at the Rashakai Economic Zone which would lead to industrialization and employment. He said the agreements he had signed during his tenure as a chief minister would be implemented.

Explaining his statement, the federal minister said the road from Chitral to Gilgit-Baltistan would provide us access to markets in China and Central Asian Republics and this make Peshawar once again a hub of trade. Pervez Khattak said the Circular Railways Project would connect Peshawar, Charsadda, Mardan, Swabi and Nowshera with one another and thus greatly benefit the people of these districts of the Peshawar Valley.

He hoped the people of Nowshera would accord a warm welcome to the prime minister when he would be in the district for the ground-breaking of the Rashakai Economic Zone on the 21 of this month. The federal minister was critical of the opposition’s Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) and said the component parties of the 11-party alliance should realize the external challenges the country was facing.

Pervez Khattak believed that there were differences within the PDM and cited the statements of Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Vice-President Maryam Nawaz Sharif to stress his point.

He said the PDM had no constitutional right to send the PTI government packing. “The component parties of this alliance are themselves confused,” felt the federal minister. Pervez Khattak expressed anger at the alleged utterances against the state institutions at a time when it has been proved that a neighbouring country was plotting to stir trouble and destabilization in our country.

He said the recent press conference by the military spokesman and the foreign minister had clearly unveiled the conspiracies hatched in a neighbouring country against Pakistan.

“It is time to forge unity instead of targeting the state institutions,” suggested the federal minister. Pervez Khattak hoped the PTI candidate would emerge victorious in the coming by-election in Nowshera. Meanwhile, the federal minister met the Awami National Party leader, Shahid Khan Khattak, at his residence.