Describing a recent meeting between the president, prime minister and army chief as a sign of the government’s weakness, PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif said that the government was using such ploys “to give an impression of stability.”
Speaking to media after attending a donors’ conference called by the Punjab government, he criticised the government for doing nothing to counter the Nato attacks inside Pakistani territory and said it was an attack on the country’s sovereignty.
Questioning the government’s silence over the attack, Nawaz Sharif said that such attacks raise question marks over the government’s performance.
“Foreign troops invade our territory, they attack our citizens. Why is the government silent? Why isn’t it taking up the matter at appropriate international forums,” the PML-N chief was quoted in the media as saying.
The government, he said, should lodge the strongest possible protest against such Nato attacks, adding that his party would support the government in this regard.
Highlighting his party’s allegiance to democracy, he said that the PML-N “is not anti-democratic and we will not allow anyone to derail the system”. However, he said, his party opposed the way in which the government was working. “This is inviting widespread public hatred. The government must improve its working.”
Addressing the participants of the conference, Nawaz Sharif called for prompt flood assistance and warned that militants could take advantage of the situation emerging in flood-hit areas. Earlier, the Punjab Chief Minister, Shahbaz Sharif, told participants at an international donors’ conference that donors have pledged to finance reconstruction of 2,100 housing units in flood-hit areas at a cost of over Rs700 million, he added.
Representatives of UN and international donor agencies and various countries attended the donors’ conference.
Giving a break-up of the flood damages, Shahbaz Sharif said that 500,000 houses in 11 districts had been destroyed, affecting 850,000 families.
Citing official figures, he said that the disaster had affected over two million people in an area of 5.23 million acres.
About farm sector losses, Sharif said that the floods had destroyed cotton, fodder, pulses, rice and sugarcane crops grown over 1.712 million acres besides damaging 461 irrigation channels and 67 protective levees, resulting in a cumulative loss of Rs80.73 billion. Additional input by APP
Published in The Express Tribune, October 1st, 2010.
COMMENTS (1)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ