Skip to main content

"Bill Clinton Offered $5 Billion To Stop Nuclear Tests": Nawaz Sharif

Hours after his homecoming, Pakistan's former prime minister Nawaz Sharif highlighted the achievements of his tenure and recalled how he gave a "befitting reply" to India's atomic explosion by conducting nuclear tests in 1998 despite being offered USD 5 billion by then US president Bill Clinton not to do so.

Sharif, 73, returned home on a special flight from Dubai, ending a four-year self-imposed exile in the UK, to head his party and try to secure a record fourth term in the general elections expected to be held in January.

Wearing a light blue kurta pyjama, a maroon muffler and a black coat, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo flew in from Dubai to Islamabad on the 'Umeed-e-Pakistan' chartered plane at around 1:30 pm local time.

He reached Lahore, considered a stronghold of his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, to address a massive rally, "I am meeting you today after several years, but my relationship of love with you is the same. There is no difference in this relationship," he told the cheering crowd. "The love I am seeing in your eyes, I am proud of it." Sharif recalled the huge pressure he faced from foreign governments in 1998 when Pakistan wanted to respond to India's nuclear test.

"There will be record present in the Foreign Office that Clinton offered me USD 5 billion [...] this happened in 1999...I could have been offered USD 1 billion too, but I was born from the land of Pakistan and it did not give me permission to accept what is against Pakistan's favour.

"Tell me, if someone else would have been in my place, you know who, could he have said this in front of the American president," he said, taking a dig at his main rival Imran Khan.

"We conducted the atomic test and gave India a befitting reply for conducting nuclear tests," he said in his nearly 60-minute speech at the PML-N rally at the Minar-e-Pakistan.

"So, do we get punished for this? Are verdicts announced against us for this reason?" he said.

Nawaz Sharif said he never betrayed his supporters nor did he shy from any kind of sacrifice. He recalled how fake cases were framed against him, his daughter and his party leaders. "But no one abandoned the PML-N flag." "Tell me, who are they who separated Nawaz Sharif from his nation? We are those who built Pakistan.

We made Pakistan an atomic power. We brought an end to load-shedding." He compared how roti costs way higher today than when he was in power. "Was I ousted for this reason? What is this decision? You are the public, you tell, do you agree with this decision?" The PML-N supremo lamented how the country was in a dire state today but at the same time vowed to redirect Pakistan to the path of growth.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)



from NDTV News- Special https://ift.tt/duIYkf9
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PM Modi To Reschedule 3-Nation Europe Visit As Tensions With Pakistan Soar

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has put his three-nation Europe visit on hold as tensions between India and Pakistan have surged in the wake of the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam in which 26 civilians were killed by Pak-linked terrorists in a religiously-motivated terror attack. India responded on Wednesday with precision missile strikes on terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. PM Modi, who is closely-monitoring the situation, has reportedly asked for his visit to Croatia, Norway, and the Netherlands, which was due next week, to be rescheduled. As per his original schedule Prime Minister Modi was to commence his official visit to the three nations on May 13. He was also going to participate in the India-Nordic Summit in Oslo on May 15 and 16. All three countries have been informed about the change in PM Modi's schedule. They have also been appraised about the current situation between India and Pakistan. Last month too, on the day of the Pahalga...
Post a Comment
Read more

After Nitish Kumar's 'Praise', BJP Says Doors Closed For Him

The opposition BJP in Bihar on Thursday said that its doors were "closed" for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who dumped the saffron party a year ago, stripping it of power in the state. State BJP President Samrat Choudhary made the averment to this effect in reply to queries from journalists about the Janata Dal United leader's address to the convocation ceremony of Mahatma Gandhi Central University at Motihari. Speaking in the presence of President Droupadi Murmu and Governor Rajendra Arlekar, Mr Kumar had freely spoken of the tussle he had with the then Congress government at the Centre for getting a university approved for Motihari, where Mahatma Gandhi had launched the Champaran Satyagraha. Without mentioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi by name, Mr Kumar acknowledged that the project saw the light of the day only after a change of guard "in 2014" as the UPA government "initially refused and after much persuasion agreed in principle but did not move for...
Post a Comment
Read more

Delhi Air On Brink Of Turning "Severe", Most Polluted In India

Delhi's air quality was on the brink of the 'severe' category on Sunday with an overall AQI reading of 382 - the worst recorded in the country for the day. Fifteen monitoring stations of the city recorded air quality levels in the 'severe' zone, having AQI readings over 400, data showed. The city also recorded its lowest nighttime temperature so far, as thick smog and haze shrouded it in a dense cover during the morning and evening hours. The minimum temperature recorded on Sunday was 16.5 degrees Celsius, 1.2 degrees above normal, according to the weather department. The national capital's 24-hour average Air Quality Index (AQI), recorded at 4 pm every day, stood at 382, worsening from 316 the previous day. The locations where air pollution levels reached the 'severe' zone are Anand Vihar, Ashok Vihar, Bawana, Dwarka, Jahangirpuri, Mundka, NSIT Dwarka, Najafgarh, Nehru Nagar, Okhla Phase 2, Patparganj, Punjabi Bagh, Rohini, Wazirpur and Vivek Vihar...
Post a Comment
Read more