RAWALPINDI: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Quaid Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has said the incumbent government faces no threat from the judiciary.
“We want that the government should complete its term, and if there is any threat to the democratic system, I will be there to block that,” he said, adding there must no effort to derail the governments.
Nawaz Sharif was talking to Hamid Mir and Sohail Warraich in an exclusive interview with the Geo News at his Raiwind farmhouse on Tuesday.
Answering a question, the PML-N Quaid said he did not play dirty on the NRO issue. “If you are innocent, you shouldn’t be afraid of appearing before the court. And if someone is guilty of something - what Nawaz Sharif can do.”
He said the country’s sovereignty was dearest to him and that his concerns on the Kerry-Lugar Bill were very much alive. He said consensus must be built to solve the issues of Balochistan. He said he did not want that there should be any mistrust between the president and the prime minister. The premier should be strong.
Nawaz said their demand for putting Musharraf on trial was still intact. He said President Asif Ali Zardari was not their enemy and is not like Musharraf. He said the image of parliament was tarnished by tabling of the NRO in the National Assembly.
Answering another question about extending the service tenure of Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Nawaz said General Kayani did not want this, adding that the Army chief should get retired after reaching superannuation. He should follow the rules, he added.
He said Musharraf’s system of governance was still in practice and “we do not want this system anymore.” He says everyone talks about change but no one strives for it. He said they do not want to be a part of any conspiracies.
Nawaz said there should not be a call for mid-term elections. “There is no place for an interim government in the system.” He questioned the people who were supporting a government of technocrats. There shouldn’t be any efforts to derail the governments. “We want this government to complete its tenure.”
About his silence on the corps commanders’ statement on the Kerry-Lugar Bill, Nawaz said he could not express his viewpoint, perhaps no one asked him to comment on that. He said the Army could have a point of view. General’s opinion should be respected. However, Nawaz added, there were many ways to let the government know about the Army’s point of view. Instead of informing through public, it could be directly conveyed to the prime minister or the defence minister, which was a better option.
He said parliament was getting strong gradually. It was for the first time that the government had to retreat on the NRO issue.
He said the establishment neither contacted him on the question of President Zardari’s resignation nor it took him into confidence over derailing the government. Nawaz said he was personally against such idea as there was no reason for that. He said he knew about corruption issues through the media, and no one briefed him on it.
The PML-N supremo said: “We’ll have to face the facts in order to have cordial relations between Pakistan and India.” He said egocentric policies of both the countries had stalled the dialogue process. “If the issues are approached seriously, their solution is not an impossible thing.” He said the Kashmir issue should be resolved through talks, and the three sides should sit on one table for that.
Nawaz said there was no danger to the country’s nuclear weapons. Every media report in this regard had been clarified but “we should take an account of the whole scenario. We have to alleviate our weakness and flaws”.
He expressed his satisfaction over the working of the Punjab government. He said efforts were on to solve the problems. “Shahbaz Sharif says that the state of affairs has changed now. Earlier, bureaucracy used to work hard,” Nawsaz quoted the Punjab chief minister as saying.
—Agencies
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