BAHAWALPUR: Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif Tuesday came hard on the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) officials for ‘harassing’ government employees on the pretext of corruption charges.
“NAB officials barged into houses and offices of innocent people without verifying the authenticity of corruption or other charges if any”, Prime Minister said while addressing newly elected local government representatives of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz here.
The NAB officials dishonored the people in unlawful cases. They terrified the government officers on baseless charges hindering them to perform official work.
This was totally unacceptable, the NAB officials should perform their duty responsibly, he warned.
The Prime Minister said he had brought the issue into the notice of the NAB Chairman and if any action in this regard was not taken by him then the government would itself take necessary action.
He said telling a lie was justified when there was a threat to one’s life, however, he had never lied. He did not believe in ‘politics of lies’. But the new politicians of today knew nothing except telling lies, but the people knew their reality. He, however, always pursued truth, he added.
Talking about energy crisis, he posed a question to the participants as to how the country was pushed in such a quagmire. The previous governments were responsible for today’s power outages. The loadshedding had not only shut down the farmers’ tubewells causing declines in agricultural produce ultimately affecting exports.
He said it was not in accordance with democratic norms as the people elect a leader and another party toppled his government.
Referring to Musharraf’s dictatorial regime, he said a seven-point development programme was launched then, but its impact was not witnessed during his days. Rather the people had become poor and the country became a haven for terrorists. Around ten years back, Pakistan was witnessing worst kind of power outages, he added.
He then lashed at the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), saying the nation knew what it had done did for the betterment of the people during its government. No attention was given to overcome power shortage during their tenure.
Nawaz Sharif said running government of a country was not a bed of roses but that of thorns. It was a responsibility entrusted by the Almighty Allah to serve the masses. The people, who had done nothing during their tenure, would be answerable to Allah.
He said today the prime minister was not powerful than in 90s. When he took power, he was asked the deadline for overcoming the power crisis. Since he did not tell a lie, so he said at least five years were needed for the purpose.
Today duration of power outages had reduced and hopefully the crisis would be eliminated once for all in five years, he added.
The Prime Minister pledged to strengthen and empower local governments to resolve public issues.
He said the people had given the PML-N a great mandate in local government elections and pinned great expectations from its elected representative. They would be fully empowered to serve the masses, he said.
Referring to his exile by the former dictator, said that a person whose homeland was everything to him could never think of spending seven years abroad.
INP