Nawaz Sharif has announced his return to Pakistan on October 21. (Reuters File Photo)
Lahore:
Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said his country is begging the world for money as India has reached the moon and is hosting the G20 summit, blaming the country’s former generals and judges for the economic mess.
Pakistan’s economy has been in free fall for the past few years, putting unprecedented pressure on the poor masses in the form of uncontrolled double-digit inflation.
“Today, Pakistan’s Prime Minister is going from country to country begging for money, while India has reached the moon and is holding G20 meetings. Why Pakistan could not achieve the feats that India did. Who is responsible for this?” Sharif asked as he addressed a party meeting in Lahore from London via video link on Monday evening.
“When Atal Bihari Vajpayee became Prime Minister of India, the country had only $1 billion in cash, but now India’s foreign exchange reserves have increased to $600 billion,” he said and wondered where India has arrived today and where Pakistan left begging. the world for a few dollars.
In July, the IMF transferred $1.2 billion to cash-strapped Pakistan as part of its nine-month, $3 billion bailout program to support the government’s efforts to stabilize the country’s ailing economy.
Sharif first announced his return to the country on October 21 to lead the party’s political campaign in the upcoming elections, ending his more than four years of self-imposed exile in Britain.
In November 2019, Sharif, who was serving a seven-year prison sentence in the AlAzizia Mills corruption case, was helped by then army chief General Bajwa to leave the country on medical grounds. The PML-N says it will arrange protective bail for him before his arrival in Lahore next month. His party has planned a historic welcome upon his return.
Sharif lashed out at the 2017 military and judicial establishment, which he blamed for sending the prime minister’s office home.
“The man (Nawaz) who saved the country from power cuts was sent home by four judges,” Sharif said in his emotional speech. He added that the then Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and the then Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief General Faiz Hamid were behind his ouster.
“(Former) Chief Justices Saqib Nisar and Asif Saeed Khosa were instruments of it [the former army chief and his spy chief]. Their crime is greater than a murder crime. Pardoning them will be an injustice to the nation. They do not deserve pardon,” Sharif said, vowing to hold them accountable.
“These ‘characters’ who have unleashed economic misery on the people of Pakistan will be held accountable,” he promised.
Sharif also stated that his party will win the upcoming general elections.
Since some former aides of Sharif’s PML-N have been appointed to the interim federal cabinet, and the party (PMLN) is not adhering to the demand to hold elections within 90 days of the dissolution of parliaments, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari suspects that the Sharifs are joining the powerful military establishment.
Some PPP leaders have accused the PML-N of becoming a “darling of the army” and plotting against its former allies to gain power.
