‘No compromise on point of view’

RAWALPINDI: Former prime minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on Thursday said there would be no compromise on his narrative of getting respect for the ballot saying the country would make progress if ballot was given respect.

Discussing the corruption cases against him, he advised his party workers not to lose hope even if he was jailed. “I remained in exile for seven years and spent 14 months in jail but could not find reasons for that,” he said.

"I have always respected the institutions,” he said, adding that his case 'was not based on abuse of power or corruption allegations.” Addressing the party leaders hailing from Rawalpindi, the PML-N Quaid observed that after Quaid-i-Azam, the masses gave vote to three persons in 70 years and he is also among these persons questioning as to why none of the prime ministers could complete their tenure. “Reasons should be found as to why none of the prime ministers could complete their tenures whereas every prime minister in India has been completing his period,” he said.

Nawaz Sharif said he is human being and could commit mistakes and sins saying that he always received respect and love from the masses. He said whenever he left for abroad, it was assumed that he would not return to Pakistan regretting that he sought one-week exemption from court to stay with his ailing wife in London but the same was refused.

He also regretted that a tradition of hanging, imprisoning and sending popular leadership to exile was being followed in this part of the world and it had been happening with elected prime ministers of the country. “This issue does not relate to me but it relates to interests of Pakistan,” he said.

Nawaz Sharif recalled that his family’s hard-earned industrial units which were established since 1937 were nationalised and in return not a single penny was paid while those who had swallowed billions of rupees of national exchequer were not being touched.

He said now a new NAB case regarding widening Raiwand Road was also being established against him. “Let us see what will come out of it,” he said. He said majority of his party's leaders are brave and not to be intimidated easily and disrespecting the Constitution should not continue anymore.