No more silence over country’s worsening situation: Nawaz

LONDON: Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday hit out at the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government over, what he called, dual standards of accountability as well as spiralling price hike, poverty and law and order situation, and said he could “no longer remain quiet” on the country’s worsening situation.

Addressing a party’s central working committee meeting via video link from London, the PML-N supremo said although Prime Minister Imran Khan was to blame for the country’s current state, “those who brought him into power” were truly responsible and “they will have to answer”.

The former premier said he was not made of the kind of stuff that could stand remain quiet on dual standards of accountability, as he warned no one should try to silence him, Geo News reported.

The PML-N supremo promised party workers if they whole-heartedly supported him, he would never let them down and they would “find him steadfast”. He deplored that Shahbaz Sharif, the Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly, had been put behind bars and was paying for crimes he had not committed.

“When I look at the state the country is in, it saddens me deeply,” the former prime minister said. “We were on such a great path to progress and look at where we are now.”

Sharif said he “sees a world of a difference between the Pakistan of a few years ago and the one before us now”. “I do not understand why this has happened.”

“We were so prosperous until 2018. Our tenure lasted 2013-2018”. The former premier said his team and he were changing the fate of Pakistan. He then began to list the “great achievements” of the three years he was in power. “We installed power projects, eradicated terrorism, the economy was soaring high, poverty was diminishing, gas was plentiful and people were employed,” he said.

Sharif said Pakistan was looking to join the G20 countries. “We had become a tiger in the South Asian region,” he said, adding: “The world was praising our progress. This is not me who is saying this. You all bear witness to this. The entire nation.”

He criticised the PTI’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project in Peshawar, saying it had yet to actually take off despite the passage of six years. “The buses burn, or the roof collapses, the lifts do not work and how much did it all cost?

“Our BRT projects — Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Multan — all cost less than Peshawar, in my estimate, and they are all working,” he said, adding he could say with certainty that “no one would have seen such speeds that were witnessed in the projects PML-N completed”.

The former prime minister said the country’s growth rate in the PML-N’s tenure stood at 5.8 per cent and “now it is approaching -1.4 per cent”.

Sharif said the PML-N had kept the rupee rate “under control for four years” and claimed the party “would have brought it down below Rs100 per dollar even had the party come into power”.

He said similarly, the prices of essential commodities were maintained. “We had left sugar prices at Rs50, whereas now they have doubled to Rs100.”

“If you cannot answer this question then ask those who are going hungry [...] they can either eat or go to school or pay their electricity bills or buy medicines which are far out of their reach now.”

The PML-N supremo denounced the current law and order situation in the country, regretting how crimes including rape were on the rise. He also counted the party’s role on the defence front, claiming due to their efforts, Pakistan had been made impregnable. “You have destroyed all our efforts with regard to Kashmir. Where is your diplomacy now?” asked Sharif.

The PML-N supremo said the “ground realities show that people do not even have clothes or shoes to wear and are robbed of the joys of Eid”. “And you claimed you would provide 10 million jobs. Where are they now?” he said, adding now “15 million people are out of jobs”.

He then asked party workers who were chanting in his support whether they truly sought to be on the right side of history. “I am raising this flag now. Will you stand with me?” He said: “I will remain steadfast on our ideology. I have stepped into the battlefield to save our country. [...] and every Pakistani has to participate in this struggle.” “You must walk with me shoulder-to-shoulder,” he said to party workers. “The people of Pakistan are looking to you. You must fulfil your duty without any delay.”