—— It’s disheartening when the work is ours, but the vote goes elsewhere, laments the ex-PM
KARACHI: Expressing disappointment over the electoral choices of the people of Karachi, former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif on Monday stated that peace in the country’s financial capital was restored during the tenure of his government but the votes went to other parties.
He expressed these remarks while addressing a parliamentary board meeting in Karachi. He urged the people of Karachi to introspect, stating, “Look within yourselves; it’s not a good thing when the work is ours, but the vote goes elsewhere. We worked [for Karachi] with sincerity.”
Sharif highlighted his commitment to development projects for Karachi and Sindh, asserting, “In my mind, there is a project. The Karachi-Hyderabad motorway has been built, but in my view, it’s not a motorway. We will build a Karachi-Hyderabad motorway that surpasses the standard of Lahore-Islamabad motorway.”
The former premier questioned the lack of progress in Karachi and demanded answers from the Paki-stan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which emerged as the leading party in the city following the 2018 general elections.
“We initiated development, including the Green Line in Karachi, Orange Line in Lahore, and metro buses in Punjab. Why has there been no progress in Karachi since our tenure? We established a nucle-ar power plant with a capacity of 22,000 megawatts. Karachi acknowledges that I brought peace, but when it comes to voting, it goes elsewhere,” he lamented.
Expressing the same sentiments for Chitral, Sharif noted, “Chitral residents accept that I built the [Lowari] tunnel worth Rs50 billion. However, in elections, the vote went to Jamaat-e-Islami. I ask Chitral residents if it’s fair that we build tunnels for you, and you vote for someone else.”
Denying allegations of wrongdoing, Sharif defended his record, saying, “Despite spending more time in prison than in government, facing false cases that ended in acquittals, we did not lose courage. Today, we are here.”
Reflecting on his past terms as premier in 1999 and 2017, the PML-N supreme leader said he was sur-prised when he was ousted from the prime minister’s office. “In 2017, the country was prosperous, CPEC was underway, petrol prices were low, and the rupee was strong. However, a selected person was brought in to replace me.”
He said that the Indian prime minister came to Pakistan during his tenure and the world was saying that soon Pakistan would become a regional power and would be part of G-20 nations. However, he added that all the progress was reversed. “We had said goodbye to the IMF but the selected once again approached it. We did not take loans from China during our government, instead, we returned loans. If the progress had continued, we would have become a big power today.”
Sharif criticised his ouster and the state of affairs following his removal as PM, remarking, “No one asked how a person who was a prime minister in the morning suddenly became a hijacker by night.”
The ex-prime minister asserted that his administration successfully constructed motorways nation-wide, with the exception of the segment between Sukkur and Hyderabad, a project that the PTI gov-ernment failed to complete. –Agencies
