SARGODHA / ISLAMABAD: PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif has refused to soften his stance on former president retired Gen Pervez Musharraf, saying he cannot forgive a person who harmed the country’s integrity and economy.

Addressing a public meeting in Sargodha on Wednesday, a day after comments made by Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani in his address at a ‘martyrs’ day’ function that democracy didn’t mean mere retribution, Mr Sharif said he had no personal grudge against anybody, but he could not forgive a person who had harmed the integrity of Pakistan, destroyed its economy and turned it into a beggar because of mounting foreign debt.

He said his party would bring about “revolutionary change” with the help of the youth and set the country on the path of prosperity and integrity.

He claimed that he had no lust for power and was only interested in the betterment of the people and wanted to see the country flourishing. Mr Sharif mentioned his 14-month solitary confinement “without any fault” which he said had deprived him of an opportunity to serve the country for seven years.

He reiterated that he had given the country the motorway and made it a nuclear power, defying international pressure.

He also listed services of previous Punjab government led by Shahbaz Sharif, saying no other provincial government had delivered like it.

The PML-N chief also made a brief appearance in the federal capital and addressed local traders.

He said the agenda of his party was to steer the country out of crisis.

He assured the business community that the hard times they had faced during the previous government would end if the PML-N was voted to power.

“I am confident to steer the country out of the current quagmire because we have an agenda and a team to do so. The basic principal is to have traders, industrialists and workers on one side of the table and the government functionaries on the other.”

He said his party’s government form economic policies after consulting the traders and industrialists and would make efforts for curbing terrorism and overcoming shortage of electricity. He said Gen Musharraf had gifted loadshedding during his rule and the PPP had increased its duration, destroying the limping economy of the country.

“I am a man of the masses, I have played cricket, you all know that but that is not all that I have done in my life, I made atom bomb for the country too.”