LAHORE, May 25: The PML-N started here on Wednesday five-day celebrations of the seventh anniversary of the May 28, 1998, nuclear tests by holding a seminar at the Lahore Press Club, praising the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif for deciding to make Pakistan a nuclear power and vehemently criticizing the policies of the present rulers.

Party’s provincial president Zulfiqar Khosa, the main speaker, said the nuclear tests had made the country’s defence invincible.

He said dictatorial rules had always harmed the country and those in power at present were unable to resist foreign pressures.

Mr Sharif, he recalled, had refused to cancel nuclear tests despite several phone calls by US president Bill Clinton, who had also made commitment for huge financial assistance if Islamabad did not follow the course set by India. In comparison, he alleged, the present rulers were seeking instructions from the US about the “services” they could render.

Mr Khosa said Pakistan’s jugular vein — Kashmir — was under the Indian control and now New Delhi was pressing the vein by setting up Baglihar dam. Pakistan would have to face perpetual drought if India succeeded in completing the projects on which work was already in progress, he added.

Referring to the government’s decision to take the matter to the World Bank for a decision, the PML-N leader said a country which had not implemented the UN resolutions on Kashmir could not be expected to respect the verdict of the expert appointed for the purpose.

Mr Khosa said during the PML-N period the number of ministers was far less than the ‘riders of the gravy train’ now. The Sharif-cabinet ministers had donated their salaries to the fund set up for debt retirement, but the ministers of the present cabinet were calling for raise in their salaries.

He said the cabinet was huge in its size and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz could not name 20 of his 74 ministers.