ISLAMABAD: PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif has said that the fate of the controversial Kerry-Lugar bill should be decided by parliament.

Addressing a press conference after a meeting of PML-N leaders here on Thursday, he said conditions attached to the bill were against national interests, dignity and sovereignty.

This was the first PML-N reaction after the US issued an explanatory note diluting some conditions in the bill and carrying an assurance that the US had no intention to micro-manage internal affairs of Pakistan.

Aid, he said, would not solve the country’s problems. The key to success is self-reliance because nations charter their destiny themselves. He urged the government and the nation to render sacrifices and end reliance on foreign aid.

He said domestic and external debts had increased from Rs3, 000 billion to Rs8, 000 billion since his government was overthrown by an army coup on Oct 12, 1999. Despite that the country was still facing the problems of poverty, illiteracy and loadshedding.

'We had taken concrete measures to improve the condition during our two tenures in government,' he said.
Sharif said he would like to know what role the government played when the bill was being drafted in Washington.

Those who prepared the bill protected the interests of the United States. ‘Our government should have taken prior notice of the conditions which were being included in the bill which was not prepared overnight. The document took one year to be finalised,’ he said.

Asked what would be his party’s stance if the bill with conditions was accepted by the government, he said: ‘We will see when the time comes.’

He said that parliament and the nation must be taken into confidence on such matters, but the government did not deem it proper to consult even its allied parties.

Sharif said it was not the first agreement or document between Pakistan and the United States, but there was something in the Kerry-Lugar bill which had angered the nation and even those who wanted to give financial assistance were finding ways to make changes in it.

He said Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi should have consulted political parties before going to the US to thrash out differences over the bill. ‘The situation will not have reached such a stage had the government implemented the Charter of Democracy which we still want to implement,’ he said.

The PML-N leader confirmed that his brother Shahbaz Sharif and Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had held a secret meeting with the army chief, but said that security issues had been discussed at the meeting. 

He said the PML-N would not become part of any attempt to destabilise the government and democratic process.  ‘We are practising the politics of principles and not of power,’ he said.

Sharif said the country needed a national action plan to turn around the economy. He offered his party’s cooperation to the government and set up a committee headed by Senator Ishaq Dar.

He recalled that Pakistan had been offered billions of dollars when it was about to become a nuclear power, but his government gave preference to national interests and sovereignty and decided to go ahead with nuclear tests. ‘We broke the begging bowl and strengthened national economy,’ he said.