PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif has said that President Asif Ali Zardari is responsible for the current state of instability in the country and has advised the president to seek an apology from the nation.
During a press conference held in London, Sharif said that President Zardari has broken all promises and agreements in the past and is exploiting the country for his own benefits, adding that all the institutions of the state deserve respect. “We do not want a Pakistan where there is no reverence for the judiciary and the Supreme Court,” Sharif said.
He stressed that an investigation must be carried out about the dispersion of news regarding the prime minister repealing the executive order on the reinstatement of judges.
Nawaz Sharif said that President Zardari has never accepted the Supreme Court “from his heart.” He said he can testify that the president wanted to keep the “Dogar court” at all costs but was compelled to restore the judiciary because of the long march, adding that President Zardari will have to pay for his confrontation with the Supreme Court.
He said that the president should respect the mandate of the judiciary, the institutions and the opposition and focus on solving the problems of the people.
Sharif said that in the past, conspiracies have been hatched against the governments but his party will ensure that no such effort is successful. He said that the failure of the present government should not be held equal to the failure of democracy.
Answering a question about the recent statements made against him by former president Pervez Musharraf, the PML-N chief said that he does not need to respond to Musharraf’s claims. Sharif also clarified that he had signed the Charter of Democracy with late Benazir Bhutto not with President Asif Ali Zardari.
The former prime minister also said that Akbar Bugti’s assassination case must be dealt with in a just manner in order to ensure peace in Balochistan and said that even though the 2008 elections were rigged against his party, he never complained and instead accepted the results open heartedly. Commenting on the law and order situation of Karachi, Sharif said that it seems the government does not exist. Sharif said that the country needs to be saved from the crisis surrounding it through a new social contract.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 18th, 2010.
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