BHIMBER: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief, Nawaz Sharif, on Monday criticised President Asif Ali Zardari for promoting a “culture of corruption in the country”. Addressing a massive public gathering for the election campaign of the Azad Kashmir Legislative Assembly here, Nawaz Sharif said the PML-N would not allow anyone to promote the politics of flattery in Azad Kashmir.
The PML-N chief said public money had been looted mercilessly and new corruption scandals of billions of rupees were emerging daily. He said Pervez Musharraf and the MQM had killed innocent people in Karachi, but Musharraf was presented a guard of honour at the Aiwan-e-Sadr, which was the biggest crime of Zardari. “The people are politically aware now and they will not accept the unilateral decisions of the government,” he added.
“Azad Kashmir is not the property of President Zardari or Prime Minister Gilani, but belongs to the 180 million people of Pakistan and five million of Azad Kashmir,” he said. “Nobody will be allowed to humiliate public sentiments. The PML-N will ensure the people of Azad Kashmir get their due rights.”
Nawaz said the president and prime minister were deceiving the nation and ignoring the problems of common man. “Three years ago, I had no complaint against the government because at that time President Zardari had started political reconciliation and had pledged that the destiny of Pakistan and Azad Kashmir would be changed through neat and clean politics, and no institution would be allowed to exceed its limits or violate the Constitution. But these pledges did not materialise.”
Nawaz said during his government, the then Indian prime minister had come to Pakistan and assured him to resolve the Kashmir problem but Pervez Musharraf had foiled those efforts by opening the Kargil front.
“The condition of the masses improves when leaders are honest,” Nawaz said. “Now the lion has come to Kashmir and will take care of Kashmiris and find a solution to the Kashmir problem also.”
Nawaz asked the people of Kashmir to elect the PML-N candidates to ensure good governance and solutions to their enduring problems.
He said he had conducted nuclear tests in reply to Indian nuclear explosions during his government, making Pakistan the seventh atomic power of the world. “The then US president offered a package of $5 billion for not carrying out the nuclear tests and warned about imposition of sanctions if the tests were conducted,” he added.
He said it was the democratic government that took the bold decisions to carry out nuclear explosions and if there had been a dictator, the country would not have become a nuclear power.