GUJRAT: PPP leader Qamar Zaman Kaira has asked the chief justice of Pakistan, chief election commissioner and returning officers of the constituencies from where Nawaz Sharif is contesting election whether Article 62 and 63 of the constitution do not apply to the PML-N chief who “fled to Saudi Arabia after striking a deal with a dictator and issued statements from there despite having promised not to make political statements during the period of exile.” Addressing an election meeting in Chokar Kalan village of his constituency -- NA 106 -- near here on Sunday, he asked if a liar could be declared ‘Sadiq and Amin’.
Responding to Shahbaz Sharif’s criticism of the PPP at a public meeting in Lala Musa on Friday, he said the party’s government had added 4500MW electricity to the national grid, adding that those whose two tenures in government did not add even a single megawatt to the electricity output had no right to criticise others.
He said the PPP government had at least succeeded in containing power outages though it had to cope also with other serious issues like rise in militancy and wheat import. “When the party came to power in 2008, the country suffered from 12-hour outages and when it left the government, the duration of outages was still the same because of a gap in demand and supply.”
Recounting problems the PPP government had to face, he said terrorists had made it impossible to hoist national flag in Malakand and Swat and 2.5 million internally displaced people had to be provided protection. The demand for separation was raised in Balochistan in the aftermath of the murder of Baloch leader Akbar Bugti but the PPP government brought Baloch nationalists into the mainstream.
Referring to other achievements, Mr Kaira said his party’s government had restored the constitution in its original form, brought parties of different ideologies under one umbrella through its policy of national reconciliation and made the country self-sufficient in wheat.
“We united the nation which otherwise had been in a disarray and even then they raise questions about our performance,” Mr Kaira said.
Coming to the Sharif brothers, he said Shahbaz Sharif could not become a Zulfikar Ali Bhutto by throwing mike in public meetings because the latter did not believe in gimmickry. “One will have to sacrifice his life to become a great leader like Bhutto.”
While Nawaz Sharif claimed that he had made the country invincible by conducting nuclear tests, he forgot that it was Mr Bhutto who had acquired nuclear capability. “Nawaz Sharif only pushed a button but is taking the credit.”
Mr Kaira claimed that Shahbaz Sharif’s public gathering in Lala Musa was a “flop” because people were not impressed with the PML N.
