Nawaz demands decisions like K-L Bill be made in parliament

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Chief Nawaz Sharif Thursday demanded that the decisions on national issues, including whether to accept the Kerry-Lugar bill, should be decided by the Parliament, adding that his party was not taken on board on the bill and the bill has been drafted to cater interests of the United States. The PML-N played its due national role on the issue of Kerry-Lugar bill. The issue should be decided on the forum of the Parliament, Nawaz Sharif told the newsmen in Islamabad after chairing a party meeting on the issue of US legislation aimed at tripling US conditioned aid to Pakistan to $1.5 billion per annum for next five years. If loans were solution to any problem, our country wouldnt have been in such condition, he added. Nawaz said that the country was in foreign debt of Rs 3000 billion in 1999. Now the foreign debt on the country has exceeded Rs 8000 billion, Nawaz claimed. He said despite taking hefty loans, the country was suffering from poverty, illiteracy and electricity crisis. The PML-N chief said the Kerry-Lugar bill could be acceptable to the American nation but the government should have considered Pakistani peoples concerns while drafting it. He opined that the terrorism was a result of repeated Marshal Laws in the country. Nawaz said Saudi Arabia did not stop him from contesting election.