–PML-N supremo says all agreements with Saudi Arabia being claimed by PTI govt were finalised during PML-N’s tenure
LAHORE: Imprisoned former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday said that he will be released from jail by next Friday.
He said this while talking to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders at Kot Lakhpat Jail. He said that following his release, he would go to his home in Jati Umra instead of the hospital.
Sharif was sentenced to seven years in prison after being found guilty in the Al Azizia Steel Mills reference filed against him by the National Accountability Bureau. On January 1, he filed an appeal in the Islamabad High Court challenging his conviction in the case.
The PML-N top leader also expressed his ‘jail ordeal’ in a poetic way, saying, “Comes the day, comes the night… that’s how I idle away my whole life.” He said that the television set provided to him in jail does not even have any private news channels tuned except the state-owned channel PTV because of which he is unable to keep the follow-up of the ongoing court proceedings.
He also told the visitors that he enjoyed the rainy weather in the morning. “I would love to enjoy snowfall if I were not in the confinement.”
Sharif told the party leaders that all the agreements to be signed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government with Saudi Arabia were negotiated during his party’s tenure.
“The recent Saudi Arabian aid package – which the PTI is calling its major success – were finalised by the Saudi crown prince with our government,” he said.
The ousted premier lamented that “the government is re-launching old projects” while referring towards the health cards plan which was initially launched in the PML-N tenure.
Talking about the Pak-Saudi Arabia trade talks, Sharif said that “the terms and conditions were finalised in his tenure”.
Criticising PTI for their slow track development programmes, he said that “had PML-N been in power, the people of Punjab would have been travelling in Orange Line Train by now.”
“They could not even complete the Lahore-Multan motorway we nearly finished,” he added.
“We laid a web of highways in Balochistan. They have not opened even that,” Sharif said.
Accusing the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) of double-standards, he said that “the anti-graft watchdog is probing development projects in Punjab but has turned a blind eye to projects in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa”.
Accusing former president Pervez Musharraf of forming the bureau with an aim to “control” him, the former premier said that “Musharraf had no idea that NAB law could turn out to be this dangerous”.
“The government has made four [medical] boards to keep a check on my heart condition,” he replied to a question regarding his health.
