SIALKOT: PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif on Saturday said the PTI chairman didn’t
come into power on his own as he was promoted to the office, adding that those behind imposing him on
Pakistan were equally responsible for the current state of affairs.
Why RTS was shut down and election results manipulated in 2018, the three-time prime minister questioned and
noted that the whole exercise was designed to place a person into power who knew nothing but abusive
language.
Nawaz said they were neither defeated in 1993 and 1999 nor in 2017 – the years when his tenures ended
prematurely – and noted that his governments had always been toppled without any reason.
Addressing a PML-N workers’ convention, he questioned how a country could be managed when the prime
ministers were removed arbitrarily. Pakistan would have been much better placed if his governments weren’t
toppled and continuity of policies had been ensured, he said.
Nawaz listed the positives of his 2013-17 tenure when, he said, the country was moving forward with a lot of job
opportunities and low rate of inflation as well as a substantial increase in the tax-to-GDP ratio, and remarked
that it wasn’t just removal of his government; in fact, the entire country had been derailed.
A prime minister elected by millions of people was kicked out of the office by five persons, he said about the
five-member bench which sentenced and disqualified him in the Panama Papers case.
“We cannot afford repeating the mistakes again and again,” the PML-N supremo said. “We have experienced
injustices but have never and would never work against the country’s interests.”
In his speech, PML-N senior leader Khawaja Asif said Nawaz would be elected prime minister for a fourth term
on Feb 8, adding that those trying to remove the three-time prime minister from politics had vanished.
Not a single MNA of Nawaz’s party switched his or her loyalty despite all the hardships and political
victimisation they had to face, he said and mentioned that there was a long queue of individuals requesting
forgiveness over their past actions.