Ex-PM criticises political opponents for ruining national economy n Raises question over governance during PTI’s 10-year rule in KP n Assures PML-N will again provide fuel, vegetables and other things at cheaper rates after coming into power.

MANSEHRA   -  Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, while criticizing political opponents for allegedly ruining the country’s economy, has said that it would not be an easy task to bring Pakistan back on road to progress, “But we will do it.”

“I had left Pakistan in a better condition but now it is detracted,” Nawaz said this while addressing a public gathering in Mansehra here yesterday.

Nawaz’s remarks came as major political parties including Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), PML-N and others have ramped up their electioneering activities with party leaders taking the helm of their respective election campaigns in their bid to woo the whole nation who will elect their representatives next month.

The ex-prime minister said that had he not been removed from power in 2017, the people of Mansehra would have been gifted an airport and a metro project. He regretted that the development work on the Sukkur- Hyderabad Motorway was stopped by the past government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. He vowed to bring Pakistan back on the path of prosperity after coming into power.

Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz will again provide fuel, vegetables and other things at cheaper rates after coming into power, Nawaz Sharif claimed and added the issue of water will also be settled.

Sharif, who returned from selfexile in London late last year, has pledged to rebuild the country’s $350 billion economy, which is battling high inflation, an unstable currency and low foreign exchange reserves, despite averting a debt default with an IMF bailout last summer. 

Recalling the 2013 elections, Nawaz said that Jamiat Ulemae- Islam (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman had approached him on forming a coalition government in KP, however, he decided against it in favour of respecting PTI’s right to form the government due to their numbers. “I ask the people of KP, what did they [PTI] do during their 10-year rule,” the PML-N supremo said while taking a jibe at the party that ruled the province from 2013 till January 2023.

“These people have ruined this province,” he added prom­ising to address rampant inflation. “If the five judges had not removed me from power, there would have been an airport in this city. The previous govern­ment did not even build the motorway beyond Sukkur. Respectable trans­port is the right of the peo­ple. We will build a col­lege, medical college and university here. Manseh­ra’s water issue will be re­solved by routing supply from Shogran,” he add­ed. “People of KP will be provided gas, vegetables, petrol at cheaper rates, along with employment in province,” he added. The PML-N supremo an­nounced projects like air­port, train from Karachi to Mansehra, motorway con­necting the city to Bala­kot, Kaghan, Naran, Chilas and Babusar if he comes to power. PML-N leader and husband of the party’s Vice President, Maryam Nawaz, Capt (retd) Mo­hammad Safdar, was the chief organiser of the rally in Mansehra. Nawaz Sharif said, “If I had not been dis­qualified, even the people of Mansehra would have the facility of a metro bus service.”