Respect for vote to put country on the road to progress: Nawaz Sharif

ISLAMABAD, Apr 26 (APP):Quaid Pakistan Muslim League (N) Muhammad Nawaz Sharif Thursday said his party will diligently pursue peoples’ mandate and the movement for respect of vote would continue to ensure its due dignity,
and make the country move ahead on the road to progress and prosperity.
Speaking during a meeting with party leaders from the Rawalpindi Division here, he said, there was no case of embezzlement, corruption and kickback against him. “I don’t know why I am on trial in NAB cases.”
He said nothing was done by NAB in corruption cases of
National Logistic Cell (NLC), National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) and Hajj scam. No action was taken against those who did corruption of billions of rupees, he added.
He said now NAB had come up with another case against him charging that he widened the Raiwind road by four feet from 20 to 24 feet.
He said NAB only could take up cases of corruption but the case against the Sharif family revolved around its personal business since 1974, when he was not a prime minister, chief minister or a minister. After the war of 1971, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto nationalized the steel mills unit and did not give the Sharif family a penny for the business started by them in 1937, adding after this, his father decided to set up steel factory in Dubai.
He reminded that no prime minister in Pakistan could complete his tenure while in India every prime minister did so.
“We should look for reasons because of which the prime ministers were sent to exile, hanged and put in jail. All these actions were only taken against the elected leaders and the politicians and this was continuing for the last 70 years. Whenever the country was put on the path of progress, hurdles were put up in the way of elected governments.”
“I was sent to exile for seven years and spent 14 months in jail in Attock fort. After that I thought the matter will end and the injustice and violation of constitution and law will end but unfortunately it did not happen. Then with the grace of Allah and with the support of people, I became prime minister for the third time. I know that people of Pakistan have great love for me,” he continued.
Nawaz Sharif said there was always speculation when he went abroad. “I applied for exemption to go to London to see my ailing wife then I returned and all the speculation died.”
He said he had no personal interest and he was raising his voice for the people of Pakistan, adding it was the responsibility of the political leaders to stand up for the rights of 220 million people of Pakistan.
Giving details of the infrastructure and development projects started by his government, he said CPEC was launched and projects including Neelum Jhelum hydro project, Tarbela 4 extension project, Nandipur power projects were completed and energy shortages were ended to a large extent, adding his government restored peace to Karachi.
The latest project will be new Islamabad airport which will be inaugurated on May 4.
“In 1985, I laid foundation for development projects by constructing the Murree Expressway. Later on, we developed infrastructure in Punjab and built a six-lane motorway.”
He told that Pakistan’s economy grew to 5.3 percent in 2017 and now will grow to about 5.9 percent, a reflection of his government’s performance on the front of economy.
He further said there was a time when all the leading foreign airlines landed in Pakistan but now just few come to Pakistan. “More foreigners should come to Pakistan and we should find reasons why the world turned away from us. We fought the war against terrorism and our army jawans, police, citizens and even children gave sacrifices but despite these sacrifices the world is not listening to us. We should seriously look into the causes that lead to such a situation.”
Nawaz Sharif said after he was ousted from power, in just three months, there was a freefall in the stock exchange which dropped from 54000 points to 37,000 points.
He said those who left the party never belonged to PMLN and those persons were seasonal birds who flew away as the elections approached.