Rejected $5bn offer of abandoning nuclear tests: Nawaz Sharif

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) newly elected President Nawaz Sharif said that the next two years might be challenging for the government and the people, News reported.

Addressing the party members after being elected as president, Nawaz Sharif but if the government works hard and is persistent, the last three years of the current tenure would be prosperous.

He was of the view that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief Minister Punjab Maryam Nawaz are working hard for well-being of the people.

Speaking on Youm-e-Takbeer, the PML-N president said that Bill Clinton, the US President at the time, made him a covert offer prior to Pakistan’s 1998 nuclear tests. “Bill Clinton had offered Pakistan $5 billion to abandon the nuclear tests but we refused it,” he added

Nawaz Sharif emphasized that Pakistan is a nation that values its independence and will not compromise on its principles. “We are not a nation that sells out.”

The PML-N president said that he was ousted from the Prime Minister’s Office in 2017 through a ‘conspiracy’.

Nawaz Sharif said a ‘conspiracy’ against his government was hatched in London, adding that his political opponents, who had returned from London, staged a sit-in.

Nawaz Sharif said that during the sit-in, a message was sent to him in which he was asked to resign or be ready for dire consequences.

“I told them to do whatever they want, but Nawaz Sharif will never resign,” the PML-N president said.

Referring to the May 9 riots, he said that we are the ones who stand with May 28th (Pakistan’s nuclear tests day), not with May 9^th.

Earlier in the day, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif Tuesday elected unopposed as PML-N president

Sharif lost the PML-N’s presidentship six years due to a Supreme Court decision in the Panama Papers case.

The five-member election commission of the party headed by Rana Sanaullah. Iqbal Jhagra, Ishrat Ashraf, Jamal Shah Kakar and Khealdas Kohistani supervised the elections.

No candidate submitted nomination papers against Nawaz Sharif.