By IANS
Islamabad : Vowing not to bow to US pressure, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif has said the era of foreign interference in the country was over.
“We’ll not bow to the US pressure. We had gone ahead by conducting six nuclear tests without caring for their (US) pressure,” Sharif told a gathering at the residence of party’s losing candidate in PF-51 (Haripur), Zulfiqar Ahmed Khan, at Khalabat in Punjab province Friday.
The former prime minister accused President Pervez Musharraf of making the country a laughing stock because of his pro-US policies, The News reported Saturday.
Musharraf, who overthrew Sharif’s government in a bloodless military coup in 1999, is a key ally in America’s “war on terror”.
Sharif returned to the country last October, after more than eight years of exile in Britain and Saudi Arabia.
Sharif said although his party could not win the required majority to form the government at the centre, yet it would endeavour to put an end to US interference in the country.
“Now we won’t allow the Americans to rule Pakistan. In the past too, we conducted six nuclear tests without taking into account their immense pressure.”
About joining hands with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in the formation of the government, he said his party had done so on the condition of restoration of all the deposed judges.
Sharif claimed he did not have any lust for power and had returned to Pakistan to protect the sovereignty and integrity of the country “which Gen (retd) Musharraf and his cronies have put at stake”.
The PML-N chief visited Zulfiqar’s house to condole the death of his uncle Haji Anwar Khan, who was allegedly gunned down by former provincial minister Akhtar Nawaz Khan and his brothers Wednesday evening.