Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has vowed to continue the "fight and not to bow down before the plotters" who want him punished allegedly for making Pakistan a nuclear power. The ousted premier who is facing accountability cases told his party workers here on Monday that the ongoing cases against him were framed to punish him for making the country a nuclear power despite pressure from the international community, especially the United States.
Chief Minister Punjab and President Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Shahbaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz, Hamza Shahbaz and other party leaders were also present on the occasion.
"In 1998, the then US President Bill Clinton telephoned me and offered that the US was ready to give $5 billion to stop Pakistan's nuclear tests. But I plainly rejected the offer and conveyed to him [Clinton] that I will not compromise on the interests of my country," Sharif claimed, adding that former military ruler Pervez Musharraf had also received a call after 9/11 incident and 'bowed down" to them on a single call.
"This is the reason for which I am being targeted. Possibly a [court] decision is in the making to punish me and take me away for sometime from among you, but you need not to be worried. You need not to bow down before them, as a person with somehow dignity will never prefer a life to disgrace," he further told his supporters.
He said he had made a decision to pursue the agenda of "give respect to vote," adding, "No doubt, I am facing huge troubles but my foresight does not allow me to bow down and I have decided to face all the challenges unwavering."
"I have decided not to bow down before the plotters and if you continue to support me, God-willing, we will succeed in this fight," he said, adding, "If we backtrack, the history will never forgive us as this is a defining movement and the time has come to change the 70 years old history."
Criticizing Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, he alleged that Khan was pushing someone else's agenda during his rally staged as a show of power in Lahore on Sunday last.
"I was asked by the media to comment on PTI's rally, so my reaction is: the venue was Lahore, the crowd was brought from Peshawar and the agenda was of someone else," he said, adding that Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pervez Khattak had asked JI Emir Sirajul Haq that he had received an order from "above" to vote for Sadiq Sanjrani in chairman Senate elections.
"Now the PTI is clarifying that by order from "above" Khattak was referring to Bani Gala. For God sake, don't befool the nation. A new Pakistan cannot be created through lies and by befooling the masses," he added.
He further claimed that unlike PTI government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and PPP's in Sindh, the PML-N government in Punjab has made "tremendous" development and also challenged the opposition parties to compare their five years progress with Punjab.
He also asked Imran Khan to tell the nation as to what his party has done for public welfare in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He further maintained that PPP did not initiate the Karachi Operation in 2013 on its own, adding it was the PML-N government which started the operation in September 2013 and restored the law and order in the city.
He also alleged former President and PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari for taking the country into the "dark ages". Shahbaz Sharif while speaking on the occasion claimed that PML-N was getting popular across the country, saying: "PML-N will make the next government." He also gave credit to Nawaz Sharif for making Pakistan a nuclear power, defeating terrorism and overcoming the energy shortages.