'Risked' political capital to salvage Pakistan

PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif on Monday said the party saved Pakistan from default by putting its own political capital at stake, while asserting that it was crucial for the nation to know who its criminals were.

Addressing a grand consultative meeting of party officials from Punjab, the PML-N supremo said that if the PDM government hadn't stepped in to save the country from default, petrol prices would have surged to Rs 1,000 per litre.

Reflecting on the bitter history of Pakistan, Nawaz questioned who has brought the country to its current state, with the poor desperate for bread and highlighted that while some losses can be recovered in life, others cannot be remedied.

Expressing his regret over the ongoing inflationary trend, the PML-N leader questioned whether people should save to afford to buy bread, pay their electricity bill, or purchase medicine.

He called attention to the characters and faces that had brought the nation to its current state, urging accountability for those responsible. He bemoaned that while he and his party were held accountable within minutes, those who had brought the country into this situation escaped justice.

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"The person who made the country a nuclear power is exiled, jailed, and sentenced to 27 years by the terrorism court," he lamented. He also criticised the judicial system, stating that four judges could send a prime minister, elected by millions, home.

Nawaz Shaid further alleged that former ISI director general Lt Gen (retd) Faiz Hameed and former army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, with the assistance of judges Saqib Nisar and Asif Saeed Khosa, were behind the actions taken against him.

He recalled that PML-N leaders and workers, including Maryam Nawaz Sharif and Hamza Shehbaz Sharif, had suffered unjust imprisonment and hardships without any crime.

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Touching on India's progress, the former prime minister pointed out that they had reached the moon, while G20 was holding meetings and questioned why Pakistan had not achieved similar feats.

He claimed that India had imitated the economic reforms initiated by Pakistan in his tenure, adding that when Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the prime minister of India, the country had only a billion dollars in treasury, but now the country boasts foreign reserves of $600 billion.