LAHORE: Pakistan’s former PM Nawaz Sharif on Saturday said he was ousted from the government in 1999 by (late) Gen Pervez Musharraf for opposing the Kargil misadventure, as he underlined the importance of having good relations with India and other neighbours.
The three-time prime minister questioned why he was ousted from the office of the prime minister prematurely. “I should be told why I was ousted in 1993 and 1999. When I opposed the Kargil plan saying it should not happen… I was ousted (by Gen Pervez Musharraf). And later what I said proved right,” Sharif said here while talking to the aspirants of his party tickets for upcoming polls.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supreme leader said that on all three occasions being the premier he was delivering but he was sent packing and that he did not know why. “I want to know why I was ousted every time,” he asked.
Sharif also talked about the visit of two Indian PMs to Pakistan only when he was the PM. “We have delivered on every front. During my tenure as PM, two Indian PMs visited Pakistan. Modi and Vajpayee had come to Lahore,” the former PM said, stressing improved relations with India and other neighbouring countries. “We will have to improve our relations with India, Afghanistan and Iran. We need to make more stronger relations with China,” Sharif said. He regretted that Pakistan lagged behind its neighbours in economic growth development. Lashing out at Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party’s jailed former chairman Imran Khan, Sharif said he did not know why an inexperienced man was given the reins of the country.
“The economy witnessed a downfall during Imran’s government (2018-2202). Then the Shehbaz Sharif government took over in April 2022 and rescued the country from default.” Sharif reiterated his demand for accountability of former military generals and judges for ruining the country by ousting his government in 2017. “Those who brought this country to this level should be made accountable as patriotic people can’t do this to their country,” he said.
On Friday, Sharif had said, “We do not want to come into power to roam around in luxury cars but we want accountability of those (who) ruined this country and made false cases against us.”
A month before his return to Pakistan after four years of self-imposed exile in the UK, Sharif had hinted at bringing former army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, former ISI head Lt-Gen Faiz Hamid, and former chief justices of Pakistan Saqib Nisar and Asif Saeed Khosa for their crime of ousting his government and causing economic disaster.
Sharif is holding meetings daily to award party tickets for the February 8 general elections next year.