Lahore:
Hours after returning home, Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif highlighted the achievements of his tenure and recalled how he gave a “befitting response” to India’s atomic blast by conducting nuclear tests in 1998 despite receiving $5 billion was offered by then US President Bill Clinton. to do that.
Sharif, 73, returned home on a special flight from Dubai, ending a four-year self-imposed exile in Britain, to lead his party and try to secure a record fourth term in the expected general election will be held in January.
Dressed in a light blue kurta-pyjama, a maroon muffler and a black jacket, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo flew from Dubai to Islamabad on the chartered aircraft ‘Umeed-e-Pakistan’ around 1.30 pm. local time.
He reached Lahore, considered a stronghold of his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, to address a massive rally: “I am meeting you today after several years, but my love affair with you is the same. no difference in this relationship,” he told the cheering crowd. “The love I see in your eyes is what I’m proud of.” Sharif recalled the enormous pressure he faced from foreign governments in 1998 when Pakistan sought to respond to the Indian nuclear test.
“There will be a record in the State Department that Clinton offered me $5 billion […] this happened in 1999… I could have gotten 1 billion dollars too, but I was born in the country of Pakistan and that didn’t give me permission to accept what is against Pakistan’s favor.
“Tell me, if anyone else would have been in my place, you know who, he could have said this in front of the American president,” he said, attacking his main rival Imran Khan.
“We have conducted the nuclear test and given a befitting response to India for conducting nuclear tests,” he said in his nearly 60-minute speech at the PML-N meeting at Minar-e-Pakistan.
‘Are we being punished for this? Are judgments being passed against us for this reason?’ he said.
Nawaz Sharif said he has never betrayed his supporters and he does not shy away from any sacrifice. He recalled how fake cases were set up against him, his daughter and his party leaders. “But no one has abandoned the PML-N flag.” ‘Tell me, who are they who separated Nawaz Sharif from his nation? We are the ones who built Pakistan.
We have turned Pakistan into a nuclear power. We have put an end to the tax cuts.’ He compared how roti is much more expensive today than when he was in power. ‘Am I impeached for this reason? What is this decision? You are the public, you say, do you agree with this decision?” The PML-N supremo lamented the fact that the country was in a sorry state today but at the same time vowed to focus Pakistan on the path of growth .
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