LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif on Monday claimed that the general elections of 2008 were rigged but at the time he chose not to say anything, DawnNews reported.

Addressing a conference organised on the occasion of Youm-i-Takbeer, Sharif said that when India conducted its nuclear test on May 11, 1998, he was on his official visit to Kazakhstan. He said he had then immediately decided that Pakistan would also conduct a nuclear test.

It took only 17 days for Pakistan to successfully carry out its nuclear test which was done on May 28, 1998, the former prime minister said.

Reminiscing over the past, Sharif said that although manifestos of his party and that of Akhtar Mengal, chief minister Balochistan at that time, were different but they had reached a consensus on the nuclear test question.

Moreover, Sharif said that the nation, including its rulers, had deviated from its goal and that it needed a vision.

He claimed that his term of government was the country’s golden era and referred to the current era as a dark chapter in national history.