Elected parliament to take future decisions: Nawaz Sharif

ASSOCIATED PRESS SERVICE

ISLAMABAD, Mar 25 : Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) Quaid and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said Tuesday that the parliament being the sovereign body representing the will of the nation would steer national policies and take decisions on all issues. Addressing a new conference here at the Frontier House, the PML-N leader said the parliament would act in accordance with the aspirations of the masses.
Nawaz Sharif once again advised President Pervez Musharraf to step down, saying the people had given their verdict against his policies in the February 18 elections.
He said if the President leaves the newly elected parliament would have the chance to elect a new head of the state for the next five years.
“If I were in his place I would have left,” the PML-N chief said, adding that the ground realities had changed and it was not Pakistan of October 12, 1999 after which one individual “shook the very foundation of the country for self- interest.”
Nawaz Sharif said the elected government was in fact inhering only problems. “It is transfer of problems, rather than transfer of power,” he observed.
The PML-N Quaid said the elected government was going to face various serious problems including commodity crunch, crushing inflation, power outages, unemployment, huge fiscal deficit, PCO and poor law and order situation.
But he vowed that the coalition partners would make every effort to meet the challenged as they “are committed to serving the nation and delivering.”
Nawaz Sharif congratulated Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and expressed the confidence that under his leadership the coalition government would live up to the expectations of the people.
He hailed the release of former judges from house arrest after the order issued by the prime minister Monday and said the treatment meted out to them had brought the country into disrepute in the world. “We are now releasing those who had provided justice to the people.”
The PML-N leader said that the new parliament had started its work to serve the masses in line with the March 9, Murree declaration and the Charter of Democracy.
About his meeting with US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte and Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, he said that the senior US officials had congratulated him over the party’s election victory.
The PML-N Quaid said matters of mutual interest and the ongoing fight against the scourge of terrorism came under discussion during the meeting. “I briefed US officials about the stand of the party on various issues.”
He said he told the US officials that only one individual took all decision after 1999 but “now we have an elected parliament to take decisions.”
The PML-N leader said that the US government wants to make their country violence-free and likewise “we also want Pakistan to be a cradle of peace.”
He said the policies pursued in the past had made “our people, markets, worship places and society as a whole unsafe.”
“We are against all kinds of terrorism,” he said.
Answering a question,the PML-N Quaid said only two persons, major general ® Rashid Qureshi and Tariq Aziz, were with the President.
Expressing solidarity with the deposed judges, he said they would be restored within announced time frame.
Responding to another question, Nawaz Sharif said he had not yet taken a final decision about standing in a by-election.