SAJID ZIA
LAHORE – PML-N President Nawaz Sharif has expressed his regret that his party’s vice president Javed Hashmi did not meet him before joining the PTI. However, Nawaz has extended him good wishes.
Talking to media men after addressing a function at the University of Engineering and Technology here Saturday, Nawaz said Hashmi is free to make his political decisions, however he wished he had met him and said good-bye before leaving the party.
Nawaz reminisced his relationship with Hashmi was so old that he would keep in touch with him when he was not in the country during the Musharraf era. Whatever decision Hashmi has taken, it will be certainly after deep thought, Nawaz said, adding that he prayed for him.
To a question whether Hashmi’s joining the PTI is a blow to the PML-N, Nawaz said: “Ours is an ideological party which has always stood up against the establishment and in future the party will maintain this stance till a complete success.”
He said majority of people and those sitting in assemblies support our stance and Insha Allah we would bring about change in the country that would put Pakistan on the way to progress and prosperity.
He said after the October 12, 1999 coup by Musharraf which removed his government they could also have joined hands with Musharraf as many other self-seekers did but they did not compromise and adhered to the principles.
To a question if early elections were held where the PML-N would stand, Nawaz said his party stood at the same position today where it was in 1997 and if elections were held the PML-N would sweep again like it did in 1997. Earlier speaking to a huge gathering of students at the function held in connection with Quaid-e-Azam Day, Nawaz said others are making hollow claims while PML-N has brought about a real change in the country by means of restoring the independent judiciary with the support of masses and revolutionising the education sector.
He said his party would not allow anyone to dissolve the Parliament and attack judiciary, law and Constitution. He said Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah strongly believed in the rule of law and independent judiciary but dictators violated the rules, driving the country to the verge. He said his party would not let anyone break the Constitution and the Parliament now. Let’s make a strong commitment in this regard, he added.
He said after the ouster of his government in 1999, the country was mired in suicide bombings, rampant poverty, dwindling economy and unending electricity and gas loadshedding. He warned the corrupt government either to mend its ways or pack up. “The government must take country towards development or it has no right to remain in office.”
When the audience started to chant “Shair aya, shair aya” (the lion comes), Nawaz said: “I am at least not a jackal, if not a lion.” Reminding the long march of March 2009 for the restoration of judiciary, he said had he been a jackal he would not have taken out a long march, risking his life. He said the long march cherished him more than the joy of prime ministership which he held twice.
Alluding to the PTI, he said those who are trapping the youth should know that youth is with PML-N. He said he pinned high hopes on the young as they were builders of a new Pakistan.
He said when his party would come to power it would provide soft loans to the educated youth while he had asked Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to announce two lakh laptops for the students of the province after the next budget.
He said the momentum of prosperity and progress his government had put in place in 1991 would have made Pakistan an economic tiger in Asia, had the military intervention not cut the tenure of his govt short.
He said Pakistan is 7th atomic power and corresponding to that it should have been the 7th economic might today but the situation is altogether different as we are far behind even from the regional states. He said this has been done through a conspiracy to keep Pakistan backward.