By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Sunday that his brother Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted by the Supreme Court in 2017 over corruption charges, would be the next leader of the country if their party won the 2023 election.
PM Sharif, who heads the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) party, told a rally in Faisalabad that elder Sharif would revive the economy and deliver development projects that were stalled by the previous government of Imran Khan.
“Nawaz Sharif will be the prime minister and he will put Pakistan back on the path of development and prosperity,” he said, adding that his party would break the “begging bowl” of foreign loans and make millions of acres of barren land cultivable.
He accused Khan, who came to power in 2018 with the backing of the military and the judiciary, of being incompetent and dishonest, and blamed him for the high inflation and debt that have plagued the country.
He also criticised former chief justice Saqib Nisar, who led the judicial campaign against Nawaz Sharif, saying he was part of a conspiracy to remove him from power on flimsy grounds.
Nawaz Sharif, who has been living in London since 2019 after being granted bail on medical grounds, faces several cases of corruption and money laundering in Pakistan.
He denies any wrongdoing and says he is being persecuted for challenging the military’s role in politics.
Shehbaz Sharif said his party was the natural ally of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI), a religious party led by Maulana Fazlur Rahman, who heads the ruling alliance Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM).
He said the PDM would defeat Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party in the next election and restore democracy and the rule of law in the country.
PM Sharif also defended his government’s decision to raise electricity tariffs as part of an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), saying it was necessary to avoid default and that low-income consumers were exempted from the hike.
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