Seizing the prime opportunity offered by the nation’s 64th Independence Day, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) kick-started its informal election campaign on Sunday with an aggressive speech by PML-N President Nawaz Sharif, who said the government had given nothing to the nation except disrespect and shame and if the rulers did not mend their ways, the coming time could prove to be “perilous.”
He said the government had blackened its own face as well as the face of democracy by unleashing its reign of corruption, plunder and bad governance on the country. In his first public address – amid tight security – in Lahore since being ‘elected’ president of his party, Nawaz took an oath in front of some 4,000 supporters gathered at the Hazoori Bagh Bara-dari similar to the one he took in 2008 to restore the judiciary, giving the impression that the countdown had begun.
In the oath-taking statement, he said: “I give my words that I will continue my efforts to protect the ideology of Pakistan. I will realise the dreams of the founder of Pakistan. I will fight against corruption, nepotism, injustice and extremism. I will uphold the supremacy of the judiciary and parliament. I will intensify the struggle to undo poverty, backwardness, and unemployment. I will defend national honour and will restore the basic fundamental rights of the people by ensuring equality. I will make sacrifices to protect democracy from army dictatorship.”
He said that PML-N had a track record of accomplishing what it pledged to do and the restoration of the judges was proof of that. “However, some people did not regard promises holy and termed them not sacred like the Quran and Hadith. But the nation rubbished such a mindset and did wonders by reinstating the judges,” he said. He said if the people decided as one nation to make their way, a new Pakistan could be created.
“The government plunged the nation into darkness but we will lighten it up. It spread corruption, but we will replace it with honesty. Destruction will be changed into construction. Employment will replace joblessness. We will create a new Pakistan that will be prosperous and developed,” said Nawaz.
Nawaz warns of perilous future
