Daily Times

Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) Quaid Mian Nawaz Sharif said on Saturday that he had never ever wished for political vengeance from anyone as he always wanted Pakistan’s development and well-being of the people.

He was addressing a public gathering on his return from London after four years self-exile at Minar-e-Pakistan here.

On this occasion, top party leaders, including Shehbaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Khawaja Asif, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Rana Sana Ullah, Ishaq Dar, Ahsan Iqbal, Muhammad Zubair, Maryum Aurangzeb, and other were also present.

Nawaz Sharif said that whenever he had been given a chance, he had served Pakistan and would continue with the same spirit. He said that despite the fact the PML-N leadership had many a times put behind the bars on political grounds but it never lost its public popularity, as “We are among the builders of Pakistan and we had turned Pakistan into an atomic power in May 1998 and made its defense invincible.’ He recalled that power loadshedding was at its peak in Pakistan in 2013 and his then government had managed to balance the demand and supply of electricity. “When I observe love and affection of my people for me, I forget all my hardships and sorrows but some traumas can never be vanished away in life as I can never forget the pain of segregation of my beloved mother and wife whom I lost in my politics,” he mentioned.

The PML-N Quaid said that he was also the son of Pakistan and he had great love for the soil of his motherland. At the time of nuclear tests, there was immense pressure of the international community on Pakistan and America had offered a financial assistance of USD five billion to then PML-N government but he as the prime minister did not accept the offer because it was a matter of Pakistan’s sovereignty and “We had given a matching response to India in this regard.”

During his successive tenures in government, he claimed that the prices of commodities, including ghee, rice, sugar, flour, and other daily use items as well as the POL prices and power tariffs were very low as compared to the recent years’ prices. Nawaz Sharif claimed that if he had been given the chance to serve Pakistan continuously since December 1990 when he had first time become the prime minister, today no one would be unemployed and everyone would be earning better livelihood, adding that the PML-N governments had always formulated public-centric policies besides embarking upon infrastructural development and focused on people’s welfare. Despite long sit-in by its political opponents, he said, the PML-N proved its metal by completing various projects of motorways.

Due to effective and well-conceived economic policies of the PML-N governments, Pakistan was about to become the Asian Tiger and also about to become member of G-20, he said and cited that today, G-20 members states were much developed than Pakistan.

He vowed that the PML-N would bring Pakistan at par with G-20 countries. Nawaz Sharif said that he wanted to serve the people again and prayed to Allah Almighty to grant in strength to fulfill this sacred cause of serving Pakistan and its people. He called for focusing on the root-causes of problems being faced by Pakistanis and ensuring the future planning in accordance with the constitution in letter and spirit besides moving forward by putting in collective efforts and wisdom to gain a niche in the comity of nations.

Nawaz Sharif suggested for working out an amicable and sagacious approach to resolve the long-pending dispute of the Illegally Indian Occupied Kashmir (IIOK). He added, “We are totally against the grave human rights violations and atrocities against the innocent people of Palestine, and we appealed to the international community to play its effective role in giving an end to brutalities in Gaza and Palestine.”

Sharing his future plan of action to take forward Pakistan on all fronts especially on economic front, he said: “We will focus on a well-conceived foreign policy, cordial relations with all neighbours; enhance exports; exploit huge potential in IT sector; revolutionary reforms in agricultural, industrial and other sectors; ensure good governance; better management; and to cut non-developmental expenditures and put in place concrete measures to increase revenues.”