Taliban talks offer to be accepted:- Nawaz Sharif

 

   

Incoming prime minister Nawaz Sharif has said that his government is inheriting massive problems from the last government yet it is determined to complete in months the tasks that otherwise would require years.

Without giving any specific deadline to overcome the energy crisis, the PML-N chief said that his government would spare no effort to minimise loadshedding and the nation will see the difference in first 30 days of his government.

There is no money in the national coffer, the debt burden stands at Rs16 trillion, and Rs.500Billion are needed to meet the circular debts alone so that continuous supply of power could be ensured, he said, adding that his party has started work to deal with all these woes.

Nawaz Sharif was speaking to the newly elected legislators of his party and those who joined them at Al-Hamra here on Tuesday. Former Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, provincial presidents of the party and senators were also present on the occasion.

Alluding to the timeframe given by his brother on ending the loadshedding during the election campaign, Nawaz said Shahbaz had said that in a ‘fit of excitement’. However, he said every means will be explored to solve this problem at the earliest. Nawaz Sharif said he has asked Ishaq Dar to make arrangement to discharge the circular debts and adopt measures to ensure that it does not accumulate again. He said his government would not leave the problems to the next government or generation.

The two-time former PM said his government will serve the people of Sindh and Khyber PK without any discrimination and rising above consideration whether or not they voted for his party. The PML-N government at the Centre, he said, will provide every facility and meet every need of the incoming PPP-MQM government in Sindh for ending terrorism, maintaining law and order, nurturing good governance and ending bloodshed and corruption in that province. But then it will expect results from the Sindh government and that no bloodletting takes place there. He said it is not time to do politics but to drive the country out of the quagmire.

Nawaz Sharif underscored the need for peace for national progress and development and said his government will prefer to use the option of dialogue as offered by Taliban for peace in the country. The dialogue offer from Taliban, he said, should be taken seriously as “we direly need peace” to revamp the economy and take the country forward after it has suffered the losses of 40,000 lives and billions of dollars in material while fighting terror. Bullet and gun should not be the only option to curb this menace, he added.

After formation of the government, Nawaz said, he would take every party inside and outside the parliament on board on a national agenda so that country could be brought out of the problems with collective efforts. It is time to save the country than do mere politics, he added.

Nawaz sounded satisfied over the smooth transfer of power after completion of the tenure of an elected government and over his party’s performance in the elections which he said was a public recognition of their performance and efforts they made to see rule of law and supremacy of the constitution in the country.

While referring to the last government, he said, his party was also prodded to street agitation by quitting the Punjab government and relinquishing NA seats to get rid of the corrupt and inefficient PPP-led central government, but he avoided that course to plug the way of using street power to overthrow a government and to let the public decide through ballot which party deserves to govern.

This policy paid off and the people discarded the PPP in the election notwithstanding the fact that it took to negative media campaign and used abusive language against them. He said May 11 was a day of accountability of the political parties. After completion of tenure, transfer of power through ballot has ranked Pakistan among the civilised nations, he added.

The incoming premier appeared quite satisfied while telling the legislators that after joining of the independent canidates, the PML-N had attained the majority to form government at centre single-handedly although other parties have also extended their support to it, which he welcomes.

He said his party accepts the mandate of other parties in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh while it was forming a coalition government in Balochistan. He said situation in Balochistan was difficult but the coalition government will put up best efforts to ameliorate it. He said although President Zardari had not greeted on the success of his party, he accepts the mandate of PPP in Sindh. (Courtesy: Nation)