Hold Zardari accountable if you want to serve, Shehbaz tells NAB

–CM says ‘political jugglers’ have joined hands with an aim to come to power

–Calls on masses to vote for PML-N to leave India behind in socio-economic fields

LAHORE: Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday said that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), should hold former president Asif Ali Zardari accountable for his deeds if it wanted to serve the country.

He said that Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-Chairman Zardari had plundered Rs6.5 billion of the nation and stacked it up in his Swiss bank account. “This amount belongs to people of the country,” he said and added that NAB should bring the amount back if it aimed to serve.

“This money should be handed over to the nation and Zardari should be held accountable. If the corrupt are not held answerable then Pakistan will not move forward,” he maintained.

Addressing a large public gathering at the Sahiwal Tehsil Stadium after inaugurating the Langarwala Pattan-Sahiwal high-level bridge at Jhelum River in Sargodha, the chief minister came hard on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan and said that he claimed to implement his 100-day programme after becoming the next prime minister, but had failed to develop a single new institution in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) during the past five years.

Training guns at his opponents, the chief minister said, “Political jugglers Zardari and Niazi (Imran Khan) have joined hands with an aim to come to power,” adding that both Imran and Zardari had destroyed their respective provinces.

“Both Niazi and Zardari are liars; one has devastated KP while the other has ruined Sindh. The people have to bury their politics irretrievably in the upcoming elections and bring the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz at the forefront,” he said.

“The people will never cast their votes in favour of liars and will only vote for those who served them,” said Shehbaz. He also called on the people to vote for PML-N to defeat India in socio-economic fields adding that the country had to leave Modi behind.

He said that the mammoth rally in the holy month of Ramzan and that too in hot weather showed that the upcoming elections belonged to the PML-N. He said that PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif had promised in 2013 that the darkness of load shedding would be removed and the PML-N government had worked very hard to cope with the energy crisis.

The chief minister said that the Punjab government had provided farmers with their rights by decreasing the prices and colossal subsidy on fertilisers. “Moreover, thousands of kilometer-long carpeted roads have been constructed in villages with an amount of Rs85 billion and farmers are getting cheap electricity due to the decrease in electricity rates for tube-wells,” he added.

He said that stipends worth Rs17 billion had been distributed among bright but deserving students during the last nine years under the PEEF program and along with it, interest-free loans to the tune of Rs40 billion had also been distributed among the jobless youth. “As a result, more than two million people have started earning,” he said and added that the PML-N-led Punjab government had initiated numerous welfare projects that were a proof of the party’s public service.

Earlier at the inauguration of the bridge, the chief minister was told that an amount of Rs3 billion had been spent on the 2,100 feet long bridge that would connect 2.7 million people of Sargodha and Khushab districts.

He was told that the distance between adjoining areas including Mianwali and Bhakkar had been sufficiently decreased due to the construction of the vital connectivity and it was expected that the new bridge would also boost socio-economic activities while also making access to hospitals as well educational institutions much easier.