KARACHI: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif came up with a tricky piece of advice for the Pakistan People’s Party-led government on Tuesday: go for early elections in order to salvage credibility.
“Wisdom demands that the PPP seek a fresh mandate because it is the only way to wriggle out from the morass they find themselves in,” the former prime minister said while talking to media at a hotel.
“I had decided to call early elections in 1993 after the restoration of my government by the Supreme Court,” Mr Sharif claimed, recalling the dismissal by then President Ghulam Ishaq Khan.
He warned the government that if it tried to complete its tenure ignoring ground realities and refusing to bring good governance, the economic and political situation would deteriorate further.
The suggestion comes at a critical juncture for the PPP since it is embroiled in a host of crises and controversies ranging from the memo case to President Asif Zardari’s illness and speculation about his future.
And to compound the situation is its gradual estrangement with the military establishment, the latest manifestation of which was the unusual clarification made by the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) the previous day belittling talk of any ‘deal’ behind the president’s return to the country.
In reply to a question about the imbalance in civil-military relationship, Mr Sharif said parliament should have oversight over the army and Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) budgets.
Mr Sharif, who began a three-day visit to Karachi on Tuesday, recalled the crucial phase Pakistan was passing through and said President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani should realise that their image was very bad in the eyes of people and they had lost credibility.
In reply to another question, the PML-N chief said the 2008 elections had provided an opportunity to change the situation by pursuing the “charter of democracy” in its true spirit, but the PPP government violated its commitment and agreements made with his party.
He said Pakistan today stood isolated and it was high time for the government not to test the country’s friends, otherwise the countries of the world might join together to form a uniformed opinion about Pakistan, which would be awkward to handle.
When a questioner asked about what remedy he had planned for overcoming the grim economic situation, Mr Sharif said he had a good team of economic experts and the PML-N manifesto committee would be meeting on December 23 to work out a plan for future economic policies which could deliver.
Meeting with Mengal About his meeting with Baloch leader Sardar Attaullah Mengal, he said he was hopeful that the Balochistan issue could still be resolved through dialogue because it could not be settled through bullets and guns.
He pointed out that those who had targeted Nawab Akbar Bugti could not be held accountable and said such policies led to the separation of East Pakistan. The policy of declaring people traitors without proof should be given up, he added.
When asked whether the establishment wanted to divide the political forces and cut to size the PPP and PML-N, Mr Sharif said such kind of game should not played.
He said a vibrant civil society was inevitable for democracy and if people like Justice (retd) Saeed-uz-Zaman were available for guiding the civil society, future of Pakistan was safe.
In reply to another question, Mr Sharif said he had often been thinking if God willing he got another chance to serve people he would prefer to live and run the government from a modest house in the vicinity of the parliament rather than from the palatial Prime Minister’s House.
When asked about his policy regarding stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh and Bengalis living in Pakistan, Mr Sharif said his government would strive to bring back the stranded Pakistanis and if Bengalis had been living here for so many years, they could be issued Pakistani passports.
Dear visitor, the comments section is undergoing an overhaul and will return soon.