QUETTA: US drone attacks in Pakistan are threats to the integrity of the country and the PML-N has been condemning it for a long time, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief Nawaz Sharif said on Saturday.
Addressing a press conference, Nawaz said that the drone attacks had started in former president Pervez Musharraf’s regime. He said that dictators had caused great damage to the country as well as democracy during past 60 years, adding that eth growth rate in neighbouring country was very high as compared with Pakistan because democracy had flourished there.
Nawaz said had there been rule of law in the country, it would have made progress. He said when the country was going for nuclear tests, the then US president Bill Clinton had offered him $5 billion for carrying out the tests but “I categorically rejected the offer because money does not mean everything”.
He said the country was currently passing through a critical phase and there were external and internal threats looming therefore the rulers should tackle the issue very carefully. Nawaz said poverty and lawlessness existed in the country while the government was imposing more taxes on the poor instead of adopting austerity measures and cutting unnecessary expenditures.
He said there should be a 50 percent cut on the expenditure keeping in view the economic conditions of the poor. He said the financial irregularities during haj were shameful. The government, instead of accepting its mistakes, was blaming Pakistan’s most brotherly country Saudi Arabia, he said.
Nawaz said that he had written a letter to President Asif Ali Zardari and had given him proposals to bring a change in the country and solve the problems otherwise the situation could worsen.
The former prime minister showed serious concern over the Balochistan situation and underlined the need for resolving the issues through political means instead seeking the solution with bullet.
