BAHAWALPUR, Dec 25: PML-N chief Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif has appealed to voters to support his party’s candidates in the Jan 8 elections in order to “save Pakistan from further disintegration”.

Speaking at a public meeting at the hockey stadium here on Tuesday, the former prime minister criticised President Pervez Musharraf and the Chaudhrys of Gujrat. He said Mr Musharraf’s eight-year rule had brought the country to the brink of disaster.

He recounted what he described as the government’s misdeeds and said President Musharraf had abrogated the Constitution and detained the apex court judges.

During Musharraf’s rule innocent people were killed in Lal Masjid and in Karachi on May 12, he said, adding that the prices of essential items and the rate of unemployment had registered sharp increases.

The PML-N chief said the country belonged to the people and not to the generals.

The former prime minister also spoke about the circumstances that led to the overthrow of his government by President Musharraf as army chief in 1999. He said that he could have compromised with President Musharraf but preferred to act in accordance with the voice of his conscience for the sake of the country and in the larger interest of its people.Speaking at a public meeting at the Mahmood Stadium in Rahim Yar Khan earlier in the day, the PML-N chief said President Musharraf’s policies had turned Pakistan into a laughing stock in the world.

He urged the people not to vote for the PML-Q candidates whom he described as a group of plunderers. “Now it’s time to hold them accountable for their loot and plunder,” he said.