PM Shehbaz vows to ‘restore country’s image’ if voted to power

LAHORE: Announcing that they would accept public mandate in the upcoming general elections, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said his party would whole-heartedly accept people’s verdict in general elections.

“If the PML-N under the leadership of Nawaz Sharif got another opportunity to serve the country, they would restore the real image of Pakistan,” the premier said while addressing a ceremony in connection with the inauguration of several development projects in Sharqpur on Saturday.

He urged the people to consider the facts involving the pathetic and poor performance of the corruption-tainted government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf with that of Pakistan Muslim League-N which had always been the pioneer of mega development projects.

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Terming the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif as “a builder of Pakistan,” man behind ending load-shedding, launching of multi dollars China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects and a builder of a vast network of roads and putting the country on path of rapid progress.

If the PML-N was in the government during the four years of PTI’s rule, the country would have a different destiny, he added. During the years 2013 to 2018, under Nawaz Sharif’s rule the country was making progress by leaps and bounds, but afterwards in the PTI’s government, the country was pushed into chaos. With a change in the regime, all the opposition leadership were sent to jails on basis of fake cases, false allegations of thefts and corruption were levelled, even sisters and daughters were sent behind bars during the PTI’s rule, he said.

Shehbaz deplored that the previous PTI government put Nawaz Sharif in jail and instilled the wrong ides of “thief” and “dakoo” in the minds of people instead of taking any practical measures for the welfare of people and betterment of the country.

On the contrary, Nawaz Sharif during his tenure as country’s prime minister had changed country’s position after putting it on the road to progress, the premier asserted.

He said the PTI chairman who had promised to bring back country’s money from abroad but failed to deposit 190 million pounds to the Government of Pakistan’s account. Rather the recovered pounds were landed in the Supreme Court account, he added. He said that the money was recovered by the UK’s National Crime Agency and they wanted to repatriate it to Pakistan. A closed envelop was presented before the cabinet in this regard without showing or discussing it with the members and approval was accorded, he added.

The PM said, “It was a huge crime as to how the national exchequer was plundered.”

He added the BRT Peshawar, Toshakhana, Malam Jabba, sugar scams, etc were the other major corruption cases of PTI.

He recalled the UK crime agency had also carried out investigation against him for two years over false allegations and at the request of PTI’s government but later, gave him clean chit. He cited difficulties regarding the IMF’s agreement and said China, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates stood with Pakistan like rocks.

He said that he could not sleep due to fears of Pakistan being on the verge of default, but with the grace of Allah Almighty, Pakistan was now, on its right direction.

The ceremony was attended by ministers, parliamentarians, relevant authorities and a large number of people.

The prime minister said that under his Youth’s Programmes about Rs 80 billion were set aside and exclaimed that if the government had more resources, he would not hesitate to allocate them for the country’s youth. Under the laptops scheme, the students were given the gadgets due to their hard work. Due to this facility, a huge number of youth had been earning livelihood and getting education while sitting at homes, he added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023