ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has assured the PML-N lawmakers that before the next general elections the government would have achieved enough for them to launch a good campaign.

Speaking at a rare parliamentary party meeting held at the Prime Minister Office on Thursday, he claimed that the government had made enough investments in electricity generation projects and there would be no loadshedding by May 2018.

The prime minister also enumerated what he called achievements of his government on the basis of which the party candidates would seek votes for their next term.

Mr Sharif held out the assurances because over the past few months a number of PML-N lawmakers had publicly expressed their displeasure over non-availability of ministers and pace of development schemes in their constituencies, more than one participant of the meeting told Dawn. The most worrisome part, they said, was that there was no visible improvement in electricity generation.

The PML-N had contested and won last general elections on the promise that it would end loadshedding in the country.

Although the prime minister didn`t directly target Palcistan Tehreel(-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan for launching a new movement against the government, he interspersed his talk with insinuations calling the PTI leadership `agent of political unrest and disturbance`.

Talking to Dawn, Qaiser Ahmad Sheikh, a PML-N lawmaker who heads the National Assembly`s Standing Committee on Finance, said that overall it was a good and long overdue face-to-face interaction with the prime minister. One common complaint made by the party lawmakers during the meeting was ministers` lack of availability and slow pace of development schemes in their constituencies, Mr Sheikh said.

Asked if he remembered when the prime minister last chaired such a meeting, Mr Sheilch vaguely recalled, `I think after two years.

Although the prime minister had met party legislators on various occasions, this was the second full-fledged parliamentary party meeting of the ruling party. The first one was held soon after the party won the May 2013 general elections.In reply to a question, Mr Sheikh said that on the face of it the government had so far progressed well and hopefully would achieve its targets. But he admitted that government had clearly lacked in the area of reforms in various sectors.

Najaf Sial, a PML-N MNA known for speaking his mind, told Dawn that the party lawmakers were not happy over the pace of development in their constituencies. `The prime minister repeatedly assured us about addressing our concerns during the remaining term of the government,` he said.

Shaista Parvez Malik, an MNA elected on a reserved seat from Lahore, said the prime minister briefed the party lawmakers on the three areas the government is focusing on energy, extremism and economy and sounded upbeat that the targets would be achieved.

An interesting situation developed when Chaudhry Asadur Rehman, a party MNA from Toba Tek Singh, sought to take the mike, but was refused. On one occasion, Mr Rehman, an elder brother of former Supreme Court judge Khalilur Rehman Ramday, stood up and asked the prime minister to hold such meetings on a regular basis. But the prime minister told the lawmaker to take his seat, which didn`t go down well with the latter.

A participant told Dawn that from other side of the table Mr Rehman looked disturbed and murmured a few sentences.

Later talking to a private TV channel, Mr Rehman said: `In a lighter vein I just said if you [PM] keep meeting us you will not get sick, which annoyed him.

However, a fuming Mr Rehman told the channel`s anchorperson: `In three years we have been afforded this one opportunity to meet the prime minister and share our concerns with him. I don`t know why he doesn`t hold these meetings on a regular basis. We as politicians are answerable to our constituents, and not the party leaders.

Taking the credit for materialising the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, the prime minister said the Chinese president once told `me that the CPEC is a gift to you from China`, implying that had the PML-N government not come to power, there would have been no CPEC.

More than once in his remarks, the prime minister indirectly targeted the PTI chief, saying, `People have come to know who believein the politics ofconfrontation,and they are the ones who tried to spoil the visit of the Chinese president.

Further taking potshots at the PTI leader, he said many people had been trying to polish their politics since 2011, whose only objective was to get into power. `We should discourage such elements,` he said.