NEW YORK, Sept 8: Pakistan Muslim League-N president Shahbaz Sharif has blamed the military for Pakistan’s economic and political crisis.

“The horrific legacy of martial laws has been Pakistan’s dismemberment, its fundamentalism, its militancy, its Kalashnikov culture, and of course the constant disruption and derailment of its fledgling democratic system in the infancy of every civilian government,” said Mr Sharif at a gathering of Pakistanis here on Sunday.

“If the politicians are guilty of mistakes, the military is not devoid of sin,” he stressed.

He noted that “while military governments spoke of the accountability of others, they never allowed themselves to be held accountable, not even when they lost half the country, or embarked on foolish adventures.”

Mr Sharif, who spoke from a written speech delivered in English, said: “If reform had been the aim, if our military had followed the examples of South Korea, Singapore or Taiwan, which despite decades of dictatorial rule laid a sound foundation for economic development, then, even I agree that forsaking democracy in the short term may have been worthwhile or forgivable.”

He also blamed politicians, saying: “Even though they were hamstrung by the military in many areas, civilian governments, instead of serving the people they were expected to represent, misused their authority for political and financial corruption.... “It was this absent commitment of politicians to decency and democracy that encouraged one military coup after another.”

Recounting the 28 years of military rule in Pakistan, Mr Sharif said: “The stark reality is that Pakistan achieved nothing of significance during this period, nothing. The lives of the people were neither altered nor improved; the self-serving system the dictators said that they came to rescue us from was never uprooted.”

Saying that “Instead it (army rule) has further perverted the system,” he added: “Let us not forget that all military rulers, in order to remain in power, need to confuse, gag, and subjugate the minds of the people.”