Foreign aid over my dead body, vows Shahbaz

LAHORE If love and affection with the country, supremacy of law, and developing indigenous resources are his crimes, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif says he will continue committing these crimes. Pakistan was achieved after sacrifices for the purpose that it will become an Islamic welfare state where everyone will enjoy equal rights. But today outsiders are hell-bent on snatching our freedom in lieu of a few coins, he said while addressing a function to give away gold medals to the Pakistan Movement workers and their heirs. The event was held at the Aiwan-e-Karkunan-e-Tehreek-e-Pakistan on Saturday. Nazria-e-Pakistan Trust Chairman and TheNation Editor-in-Chief Majid Nizami, Pakistan Movement Workers Trust Chairman Colonel (retd) Jamshed Tareen, NPTs Senior Vice-Chairman Begum Majida Wyne, its Vice-Chairman Dr Rafique Ahmed, Secretary Shahid Rasheed, prominent Muslim League leaders Mian Farooq Altaf, Senator Ch Naeem Hussain Chattha, Waleed Iqbal and a large number of Movement workers or their families were also present on the occasion. Shahbaz Sharif, while mentioning that hundreds of thousands of people had laid down their lives to get freedom in 1947, said that even in 2011 over 40,000 army jawans, officers, security officials and civilians have been martyred for the sake of our national sovereignty. Reiterating his governments pledge to renounce foreign [US] aid, he again said Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif, and the Pakistan Muslim League-N would prefer death over accepting foreign aid, as it was usurping our freedom and marring our dignity and our honour. While expressing that he was extremely pleased in giving away the gold medals those great heroes of Pakistan and their heirs who strove hard for the acquisition of a separate homeland under the wise leadership of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, he said just because of their sacrifices, the nation was breathing in an independent atmosphere. He deplored that the motherland had once again been smeared in blood for its dignity and honour even after the sacrifices made in 1947. The outsiders want to do away with the sovereignty of the country by using the pretext of 'charity and control the aerial boundaries of the country. The nation needs to rise up again for regaining its freedom and doing away with the evil designs of the outsiders, he added, while pointing out that it was a reality and the history corroborated the same that those nations who made tough decisions, they turned out to be victorious and got a well deserved place in the comity of nations. The nation will have to think it today that how long it will remain prostrated to the outsiders after having accepted their charity and will continue to bargain their freedom. It is equivalent to playing treachery to the blood of the martyrs whereas the blood of the martyred of the Pakistan Movement posed a question today that if it was the objective for which they had laid down their lives for. Their blood is also raising the question that if any nation has ever been flourished on alms, he lamented, while mentioning that the outsiders were not holding the Pakistanis in esteem despite the sacrifices while a message was being given to them, following the Abbotabad incident, that the Pakistanis were not their friends. It is high time the shackles of slavery were broken for a dignified life, he suggested. Shahbaz Sharif was of the considered opinion that enemies wanted to destroy Pakistans solidarity, while the nation would have to stand up for its freedom and prove a rock for foiling the nefarious designs of others. We will have to ponder that for how long we will be bowing before others for charity and compromising our freedom, he questioned, adding that such act was a betrayal from blood of martyrs. Despite our sacrifices, the foreigners are not giving due importance and after the Abbotabad incident, we are being given a message that we are not their friend but a parasite country. Time has come that we should learn living with dignity by breaking the chains of slavery, he stressed. He warned that if the nation failed to do so, Drone attacks would continue while the blood of innocent citizens would continue to bleed. He expressed the opinion that the Drone attacks would not be stopped through parliamentary resolutions or sit-in protests. The entire nation will have to be united to stop them. Drone attacks are adding fuel to the fire while suicide bombers are being produced as a result of those attacks, he maintained, while warning that Drone attacks would not be stopped as long as the nation developed its own resources and renounced the foreign aid. Although to renounce the foreign aid is certainly a difficult decision yet it is the heart-felt voice of each and every Pakistani right from Khyber to Karachi, while the dignity and honour of the country is dear to every Pakistani, he mentioned. He averred that the canker war of corruption had rendered the country half dead as mega scandals of billions of rupees were coming to limelight every day. The outsiders are felicitated after having termed the Abbotabad incident a great victory. Does it appeal to any sensible and patriot Pakistani to felicitate the outsiders over such an incident as had injured the dignity of the country, he said. To him, the elite had enjoyed the taste of dollars and now the nation was looking towards them for sacrifice. He lamented that it was the class of plunderers of resources known to be aristocracy and got high position in the society, whereas a layman didnt have the basic amenities of life. He also expressed the pledge to make the country from great to greater under the leadership of Muhammad Nawaz Sharif where everyone would have equal opportunities to education, health and employment and the justice would be supreme. In his address, Majid Nizami, while commending Shahbaz Sharif for his historic decision to renounce foreign aid, disclosed that as many as one thousand gold medals had so far been distributed among the Pakistan Movement workers. He said the evil trio the US, Israel and India was bent upon destroying Pakistan. We must fight against them. We have the best army, and Pakistan being the only Muslim country armed with nuclear arsenal, should fire a few missiles at the Hindu state before it turned our land into a desert, he said. While mentioning that people say that he did not know about the implications of the nuclear war, but I see success story of Japan, which is far prosperous than America. We should wage nuclear was against India otherwise we will die thirsty in the coming years. He maintained that after Iraq and Afghanistan, the US would target Pakistan now. Majid Nizami asked Shahbaz Sharif to unite all factions of the Muslim League. It was the party which got secured Pakistan, and the united ML will strengthen Pakistan, he advised. Jamshed Ahmed Tareen welcomed the CM, and thanked the workers and their families for attending the ceremony.