By Staff Reporter
LAHORE: Nawaz Sharif, the former prime minister and leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, on Wednesday called for accountability of those who installed Imran Khan in power, describing them as bigger “criminals” than the founder of the rival Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party.
“Imran Khan was not the only criminal; the ones who brought him to power were the bigger criminals, and they should be held fully accountable,” Sharif said in an address to a gathering of newly elected lawmakers in Lahore.
The remarks marked a rare public appearance for Mr. Sharif, who has largely kept a low profile since his party formed a coalition government with the Pakistan Peoples Party after the 2024 general elections. They came amid a backdrop of lingering political tensions in Pakistan, where accusations of electoral manipulation and economic mismanagement have defined the rivalry between the PML-N and PTI for years.
Sharif, a three-time former premier, used the occasion to lambast the PTI’s tenure, which began after the 2018 elections in which Khan’s party emerged as the largest, securing 115 of 270 National Assembly seats.
Sharif accused the previous government of fostering “chaos, anarchy and fights, including slandering others,” and questioned whether a country could progress under such leadership. “You know their (PTI’s) narrative well, they used to call others robbers and dacoits while they were the bigger robbers,” he said.
Drawing contrasts with his own administration’s record, Sharif lamented that before the 2018 power shift, Pakistan was on a trajectory of low inflation and high growth. He recalled that the Saudi riyal was valued at 11 Pakistani rupees when Gen. Pervez Musharraf imposed martial law in 1999, compared with around 78 rupees today, as noted by an audience member. Such currency depreciation, he said, had made life unaffordable for ordinary Pakistanis.
The PML-N leader also highlighted the country’s current dependence on the International Monetary Fund, arguing that it curtailed national sovereignty. “If our rate of progress had remained the same, who knows where we would’ve reached today. There would be no worries about IMF or about foreign exchange,” Sharif said. “Now we have all these worries; what are our reserves, whether IMF will let us do this or not. We cannot make any decision ourselves. Our personal decisions are in the hands of foreigners.”
In a nod to recent political developments, Sharif declared that such elements had been defeated in the by-elections held earlier this month, where his party achieved a sweeping victory. Unofficial results showed the PML-N winning all six National Assembly seats contested — in constituencies including Haripur, Faisalabad (two seats), Lahore, Sahiwal and Dera Ghazi Khan — and six out of seven Punjab Assembly seats, with the Pakistan Peoples Party claiming the remaining one in Muzaffargarh.
He criticized the PTI for announcing a boycott of the polls only to field candidates in several races. “What kind of boycott was it that Omar Ayub’s wife was contesting?” Sharif asked, noting that PTI contenders had campaigned while holding portraits of Mr. Khan.
Turning to the current government’s performance, Sharif praised Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, his brother, and Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, his daughter, for their efforts to restore stability. He said voters had supported the PML-N based on its track record, and that the administration had “taken the economy out of the trenches” and averted default within a year and a half. Inflation had been reduced, he noted, and the country was now “set to reach new heights of development and prosperity.”
Sharif pointed to provincial initiatives as evidence of progress, including low-cost housing, hospital projects, student laptops, scholarships, the “Suthra Punjab” cleanliness drive and green bus programs. He also emphasised improved security and social protections in Punjab, with ration cards and health facilities distributed to vulnerable families without discrimination. “People of all beliefs and religions are our brothers and sisters,” he said.
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