Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif speaks during a ceremony to celebrate Youm-e-Takbeer at Aiwan-e-Iqbal. - File Photo

LAHORE: PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif has warned that he will join people if they take to the streets to oust the government.

Recalling the time when his government had carried out the nuclear tests in 1998 in response to similar tests by India, he said: “I still remember the good old days. Thirteen years back we were a proud nation and today we are a worried one. I wish Pakistan could regain its lost glory.”

Mr Sharif, who enjoyed good relations with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani until recently, said: “I would like to ask the prime minister what has happened to our demand for the setting up of an independent commission to probe the Abbottabad incident. You are a product of parliament but it appears that you have no worries about protecting the country's sovereignty.

“Do not allow the world to make fun of us. What steps the government has taken in three years to strengthen the economy. We signed the Charter of Democracy but they (PPP leaders) have not learnt anything from the past.”

The PML leader accused Makhdoom Amin Fahim, a federal minister belonging to the PPP, of being involved in corruption. “Money made through corrupt means has been transferred to the accounts of a son and a daughter of Mr Fahim. This should stop now,” he said.

He said the government should stop 'fighting' against the Supreme Court.

Mr Sharif held military dictators, especially Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf, responsible for the current situation facing Pakistan.

He said the democratic process should be given a chance till it gained strength. “Mistakes can be identified and rectified in democracy.”

Mr Sharif said Pakistan and India were about to resolve the Kashmir dispute in 1999.

“The Indian prime minister and I wanted to resolve the Kashmir dispute in 1999 but Gen Musharraf opened the Kargil front and then overthrew my government. After the nuclear tests, India had started treating us on an equal footing.

“Today no one is with us. When my government conducted nuclear tests, half of the world was with Pakistan. I do not say that no one was with India; there were countries with India also.

“Pakistan had become stronger after that but the subsequent martial law weakened it,” he said.

The Muslim League leader said the country would have been on the road to progress had people stopped military dictators from toppling democratic governments.

He reiterated his demand for independent commissions to investigate the covert US operation carried out on May 2 in Abbottabad and the terrorist attack on the PNS Mehran base in Karachi on May 22.

“I want the government to constitute the inquiry commissions without delay so that responsibility can be fixed and punishments awarded,” he said. “Our slogan is inquiry and accountability.”