Caretakers responsible for outages: Nawaz

ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif said here Tuesday that till the night of May 31, when the PML-N left the government, there was no load-shedding at all. And if the country was facing load-shedding now, the caretakers were responsible for it, and not the PML-N government, he added while talking to the media on the accountability court (AC) premises. He was there to attend the court proceedings in the Avenfield apartments corruption reference against him. Nawaz said the PML-N government had added 10,000 megawatts of electricity to the system during its tenure. When his attention was drawn towards Inter-Services Public Relations director-general’s concerns about propaganda against Pak Army and other institutions on the social media, he said he did not hear complete press conference of the army spokesman. However, he added that if one’s own house is in order, everything will remain in order.

Nawaz said he had read an article of Abbas Nasir in New York Times in which he expressed dangers to the right to freedom of expression and also pointed out some other things. Nawaz said we should take cognizance of what Nasir said in the article else we head towards the same end about which the writer had predicted. This is not the age of imposing restrictions on the media. It is, in fact, a way of learning from our past mistakes.

Nawaz also rendered a verse “Jo Thoker Na Khaey Nahin Jeet Uski… Jo Gir Ke Sanbhal Jaey Hay Jeet Uski” (One who doesn’t know how to cope with a defeat can’t ever win; And one who can stand on his feet after a failure is the real winner).

About imminent water crisis in Pakistan and the need for building water reservoirs, Nawaz said that his government had started construction of Diamer-Bhasha Dam. Rs100 billion were paid for acquiring land and the work on the project is going on. Then there is Bunji Dam, which also needs to be constructed, Nawaz added.

When he was asked about the need for developing consensus on construction of Kalabagh Dam (KBD), instead of him Pervaiz Rasheed sarcastically said: “Leaders of all parties should come to accountability court to develop consensus (on the issue), as Mian Sahib (Nawaz Sharif) did not find enough time to do anything else.”

Nawaz once again expressed his astonishment over the LHC single judge decision, striking down the election nomination forms. He said the parliament unanimously approved that legislation. How come a single judge bench can strike it down? Whether it is a ceremonial parliament that a single judge can strike down the law made by it, he asked.

When he was asked about the allegation that the PML-N was behind Reham Khan’s book, Nawaz said when they (opponents) could not find anything else they start levelling such allegation.

He said he wanted to perform Umrah and also visit his ailing wife, but he was unable to get time due to continuous court proceedings.

Responding to a question, Nawaz said the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman had not replied his legal notice yet.