Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has said that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) would foil conspiracies being hatched to defame and malign it, and he would aggressively counter all conspiracies against his provincial government.
"People have given us the mandate, unlike the power grabbed by Pervez Musharraf, riding on tanks. The electoral approval we got was against Musharraf and the PCO judges," he told a delegation of Muslim Leaguers from Multan comprising Ehsan-uddin Qureshi, Punjab Minister for Auqaf Mehboob Alam, Athar Mumtaz, Munir Akhtar Langah, Bilal Butt, and Imtiaz Gulzar Chattan.
The chief minister, who also heads the PML-N, said that he would give due respect and honour to PML workers who rendered precious sacrifices for the cause of restoration of democracy and restoration of judges and "independence" of judiciary, as it was the cornerstone of PML-N policy. "There is no ambiguity about it. I am prepared to sacrifice the position of the chief minister for this cause."
Shahbaz said his party would continue to stick to its principled stand on the issue of restoration of the pre-November 3rd judiciary but made it clear that it would not leave the federal coalition. He said the PML-N stance was abundantly clear from the day one and there would be no change in it. The civil society, lawyers and intellectuals share this stand.
The chief minister said that the coalition of two major political forces of Pakistan was a dream that came true in the February 18 general elections. Democracy would be destroyed if this opportunity was lost. He said patience and forbearance would have to be followed.
Shahbaz said that although Nawaz had recently declared that he was disappointed because of PPP's failure in not fulfilling the promise of restoring the dismissed judges, yet he never stated that the PML-N would derail the system or would leave the coalition.
About the strategy of his party if Zardari remained stuck to his stance not to reinstate the deposed judges, he said that if the coalition broke, it would have a drastic impact on democracy and would strengthen the forces of dictatorship.
He said that although his party and the people of Pakistan would neither accept Musharraf or the PCO judges, the government had taken a step forward for the resolution of the judges' issue by increasing the strength of the apex court to 29, which might be irregular by law but was a positive step.
The chief minister said that the previous government delayed certain key decisions that it should have taken as per its commitments with the international donors. He said the new administration had been pushed to take these decisions, which caused the price-hike. "Please give the new government time to deliver and correct the wrongs."
He listed the measures taken in the recent Punjab budget and allocations made for provision of free bus facility to all levels of schools. "It is a fallacious view that suicide bombing has gone away. It has to be taken care of by hitting at the root-cause."
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