Terming the NAB references against him “seeds of discord” and “vengeance”, Ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif has said that Panama Papers’ judgement—made by a five-member bench— has put the country on the path of ‘destruction’.
“I made Pakistan an atomic power but what I got in return was the exile,” Nawaz told reporters in London, alluding to the 1999 military coup by General (r) Pervez Musharraf.
Nawaz had left for London earlier in the day to tend to his ailing wife Kulsoom Nawaz, who has been suffering from cancer for the last few months.
Lashing out at the judiciary, Nawaz categorically dismissed the three reference filed him against on the directives of Supreme Court in view of Panamagate judgement, calling them an attempt to discredit him.
He also lamented the fact that no civilian government was allowed to function over the period of 70 years. “Terrorism was there before we formed the government. Why did no one take notice earlier?”, he asked.
The PML-N president urged the government to make public reports of the many commissions and tribunals. “People who are spreading darkness in Pakistan are able to get away with it because only Nawaz Sharif is under focus,” he said. He also bemoaned the ‘dharna (sit-in protest) culture’, saying that it had become the norm since 2013, and everyone was resorting to it to achieve their goals.
Talking about the achievements of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the party chief said the country now had surplus electricity and load-shedding was on the verge of an end. “In 2013, there were power outages for as long as 20 hours. We brought light back into our people’s lives and fulfilled their expectations.”
