LAHORE  -  Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) Quaid Nawaz Sharif asserted on Tuesday that the country was flourish­ing in 2017 but a ‘selected’ prime minister was installed the following year through electoral manipulation. 

Speaking at a parliamen­tary board meeting in Lahore, the former prime minister expressed concern that the nation had paid a heavy price due to the selection of an un­deserving individual for the prime ministerial position.

Nawaz Sharif highlighted the stark contrast between the promises and actions of the PTI chief during his tenure in power, emphasising that basic commodities like vegetables, pulses, and flour were afford­able when his party was in office but experienced a drastic increase in prices un­der the PTI’s governance through an unfair process.

He noted that false cases against him were dis­missed within 2 to 3 hearings, revealing the attempts to prevent him and Maryam Nawaz from leaving jail. Referring to a purported conversation between former ISI chief General Faiz Hameed and a senior judge, Nawaz Sharif said: “It was said that Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz should not come out of jail, otherwise our two years of hard work will be wasted. The nation should also know what two years of hard work was”. 

Reflecting on the PML-N’s achievements, he men­tioned that despite the country’s near-bankrupt­cy in 2013, they achieved a growth rate of 6.2 per­cent, lowered the policy rate to 5 percent, and bid farewell to the IMF. Nawaz Sharif asserted that the world acknowledged Pakistan’s potential to join the ranks of developed nations if progress contin­ued at the same pace. Recalling the improvements made during his party’s tenure, he highlighted the elimination of load shedding in 2016, and the con­trol maintained over the dollar. However, he lament­ed that the situation deteriorated as soon as Imran Khan assumed power, labeling slogans like “New Pa­kistan” and “Change” as deceitful.

Also, Mian Nawaz Sharif facilitated reconcilia­tion between father and son during the PML-N parliamentary board meeting. Mian Moazzam and Mian Qasim, sons of party leader Mian Farooq from Faisalabad, resolved their differences with Nawaz Sharif’s intervention. Quoting Quranic vers­es, Nawaz Sharif persuaded the warring brothers and their father to reconcile. Mian Moazzam apolo­gised to both his father and brother after being in­structed to do so, as he had applied for a party tick­et against his father’s wishes. Also, Nawaz Sharif said if Pakistan had maintained the continuity of policies during the last four decades, it would have rubbed shoulders with the developed countries of the world today.