LAHORE (Dunya News) – Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif said on Wednesday the country was stuck in a quagmire of challenges and one wonders what had befallen Pakistan.
Addressing a session of the PML-N parliamentary board here, the former prime minister asserted, “We need to take matters into our own hands. We ourselves are responsible for the sorry state of affairs in the country.”
Without naming the founder of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Nawaz associated the challenges facing the country today to putting the former PTI chairman at the helm. “Everything was done to bring in this one person.”
The former premier mentioned that in 2017, the country was progressing towards prosperity. “There was no inflation or unemployment. People were moving away from the poverty line, and Pakistan was leading in development in the region.”
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He further said that essential commodities were within reach of the common Pakistanis in 2017 and it seemed as if Pakistan would join the ranks of developed nations. But, he regretted, that after four days of progress, the country began to regress.
The PML-N leader reiterated that everything was done to bring in one person, and now the state the country was in was evident to everyone.
Nawaz stated that he and his daughter Maryam were implicated in false cases and they attended around 150 hearings.
The former premier asserted that he was declared ineligible for not accepting a salary from his son. “It is unheard of in the world to remove an elected prime minister.” He said that today he stood vindicated in those fake cases.”
Nawaz Sharif deplored that “while our neighbouring countries had reached the moon, Pakistan was still lagging behind.”
The PML-N supremo said that every nation that progressed had given priority to women, emphasising that women must play an equal role in the country's development.
Since Nawaz Sharif's return to Pakistan in October, he has achieved significant legal victories, being acquitted in the Avenfield and Al-Azizia graft references.
As former prime minister Nawaz Sharif sees another prime ministerial bid, the only remaining legal obstacle preventing him from participating in the upcoming elections on Feb 8 next year is his lifetime disqualification as a parliamentarian in the Panama Papers case.
Parliamentarians’ disqualification case is scheduled to be taken up by a larger bench of the Supreme Court on Jan 2 next year.
This seven-member bench, led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, will address the issue of lifetime disqualifications of parliamentarians under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution.
Read more: Supreme Court forms larger bench to hear lifetime disqualification cases
According to Article 62(1)(f), a person cannot be qualified for election to the Parliament unless they are sagacious, righteous, non-profligate, honest, and ameen, with no contrary declaration by a court of law.
In May 2018, a five-member Supreme Court bench, led by the then CJP Mian Saqib Nisar, had ruled that disqualification under Article 62(1)(f) was permanent and would remain in force until another verdict comes in his/her favour or the disqualification verdict was struck down.