LAHORE: PML-N Quaid Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has said that he never gave any ultimatum to Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani’s government adding that Gilani was a powerful Prime Minister after the passage of the 18th amendment.
“There is no such word like ultimatum in my dictionary and I merely gave proposals for the progress and prosperity of the country,” he said while addressing a press conference after a PML-N consultative meeting at his Raiwind residence here Monday.
Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, Senator Ishaq Dar, Ahsan Iqbal, Senator Pervaiz Rasheed, Khawaja Muhammad Asif and Khawaja Saad Rafique were also present on the occasion.
PML-N Quaid said that he had asked the Prime Minister to respond to his proposal in the affirmative or the negative and he had thanked the premier for his positive reply.
To a question, Nawaz Sharif said that PML-N had given 45 days to the government only to make its actions visible to the public, adding that he never talked of the mid-term elections and neither did PML-N nurtured such agenda.
Expressing his concern over lawlessness, unemployment, corruption and other problems being faced by the country, he said, “Had his party become a part of any puppet show, the system would have collapsed.”
Lauding the government’s decision to withdraw increase in petroleum prices, Nawaz demanded that the government should take immediate steps to overcome power and gas load-shedding, replace officials involved in corruption cases with capable officers, withdraw the directions to write-off loans on political grounds, implement all decisions by the courts including NRO, curtail government expenses by 30 percent and reduce the number of ministers in the federal government, restructure the election commission of Pakistan as well as public sector departments including PIA, Pakistan Steel Mills, Railways, OGDC, NHA, CAA, PEPCO, KPT as well as CDA, eradicate tax-leakage from the FBR and introduce a policy to cut-down prices of the essential commodities.
He demanded the government to bring the culprits of Hajj, Sugar and Agosta submarine scandals to book, adding that BoP, NICL offenders should also be brought to justice by establishing an independent Accountability Commission.
Mian Nawaz Sharif said that the solution to all the ills faced by the country lies in the implementation of all the above proposals.
To a question, he said that PML-N did not believe in the politics of blackmailing and horse-trading and the times of such politics had gone with the wind, adding that politicians must now look to bright future.
He said that PML-N would never let Pakistan become unstable adding that it was willing to be called a ‘friendly opposition’ for the prosperity and solidarity of the country.
Nawaz Sharif said that load-shedding was a gift from the previous government which completed its tenure under the patronage of martial-law regime. He said that a dictator played havoc with the country’s economy in the name of reformation.
The PML-N chief said that he was giving last opportunity to the government to improve and ameliorate the situation since the masses were fed up with the situation.
Nawaz Sharif parried a question regarding the appointment of the new Punjab Governor.
Nawaz Sharif constituted a four-member committee of the PML-N headed by Senator Ishaq Dar and comprising Sardar Mehtab Abbasi, Senator Pervaiz Rasheed and Abdul Qadir Baloch to monitor the implementation of the proposals by the government within 45 days. – APP
