GUJRAT: Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Sunday said he was ready to undergo accountability in case any allegation was proved against him.
Addressing a public gathering at Kotla Arab Ali Khan, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo vowed to continue efforts for safeguarding the sanctity of vote in the country. He said the plague that infested the country for the last 70 years should now be got rid of. He said that similar decisions of ousting prime ministers have been taken in the past 70 years. “But will the same trend continue for the next 70 years,” he asked the gathering.
Mentioning the ruling party’s victory in elections for the Upper House of parliament, the deposed premier said that despite the Supreme Court’s decision to remove him as the party chief and asking the party candidates to contest the elections independently, the PML-N had emerged victorious. “The National Assembly and the provincial assemblies stood against the decision and brought victory to the PML-N,” he said. “I have been ousted not for denying salary from my son’s company but for bringing the country on the path to progress,” he claimed.
The former prime minister said that Senate papers of his party’s candidates were rejected as those had his signatures as the president of the PML-N. “In this manner, the power plants and motorways should also be shut down as they too have my signatures,” he said, adding that there was no allegation of corruption against him.
Maryam says public courts ruling in favour of Nawaz as swiftly as superior courts delivering vengeful verdicts against him
Nawaz expressed the optimism that next government would be of the PML-N, adding that whenever he made a promise, he fulfilled it wholeheartedly. He said that his vision and narrative had reached Kotla. “I know you people have decided to fight a decisive battle,” he said. “I am confident that the people of Kotla would not step back when it comes to safeguarding the sanctity of vote,” he added.
Earlier, Maryam Nawaz in her address said the results of recent polls indicated that the opponents had accepted the defeat. She said that none of the allegations had been proved against Nawaz Sharif. “Power and rule do not remain forever,” she said. “A person owning offshore company was not ousted and the one not owning a company was disqualified,” she said. She said the public courts have been giving their decisions in favour of Nawaz Sharif as swiftly as the superior courts delivering vengeful rulings against him.
Deploring the court proceedings, she said first Nawaz Sharif was removed as prime minister and then he was desisted from party presidency and finally the party was deprived of its symbol in the Senate polls. “Despite all this, the party emerged victorious in the Senate elections as the detractors have also conceded their defeat,” she said.
Published in Daily Times, March 5th 2018.
