Nawaz to make Pakistan 'great' if voted into power again, says Shehbaz Sharif

LAHORE: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Sunday that former premier Nawaz Sharif would turn Pakistan into a progressive state if his party gets another chance to rule the country, ARY News reported.

“Under the leadership of Nawaz, PML-N delivered on ground and those who were conspiring against the state had got their conspiracies buried,” he said while addressing a cheques distribution ceremony under the Prime Minister Youth Business and Agriculture Loan scheme.

“If PML-N given an opportunity in the upcoming general elections, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and the entire leadership of party, would change the destiny of the country by taking it on the path of progress and prosperity,” he said.

The prime minister while lauding the statesmanship qualities of his elder brother, regretted that former prime minister and his leader Nawas Sharif was ousted from power despite the fact that he had ended hours long crippling load shedding, provided laptops and loans to youth, brought muti-billions China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CEPC) power and road infrastructure projects during 2015.

He further said that all youth programmes were started during the tenure of Nawaz Sharif as alone 50,000 vehicles were provided to the people on merit across Punjab province.

The success of loan scheme could be gauged from the fact that 99 per cent loans were returned back to banks, he added.

The prime minister elaborated that the PTI chairman who was brought to power through a “fraud elections”, kept on chanting the corruption charges during his four years’ tenure but did not prove them, adding that when he was removed from power corridors through a constitutional manner, he used dirty language and tactics against the state institutions.

The prime minister mentioned that PTI’s tenure was tainted with huge corruption scams including sugar and wheat scams, BRT Peshawar, Malam Jabba, sale of Toshakhana gifts, Rs 60 billion money embezzlement returned by the UK agency, etc and said that no one could deny these stark facts.

He said during his tenure, about one million laptops were given to the youth and the PTI leadership blamed them of using the scheme as bribe.

The prime minister stressed that these laptops were given purely on merit, and if proved otherwise, he would be held accountable as these resources belonged to the country.