Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif on Monday said his party, which led the coalition Pakistan Democratic Movement’s (PDM) government before caretakers took rein of the country last month, saved the country from default by putting their political capital at stake.

In a virtual address to the grand consultative meeting of party office bearers of Punjab, the former prime minister said had the PDM government not saved the country from financial default, today petrol would have been sold at Rs1,000 per liter, Express News reported.

Nawaz, who has been living in London in a self-imposed exile and plans to return to the country by next month, decried that his party was held accountable for letting Pakistan grow economically.

He said this was totally in contrary to deferred punitive actions against those who brought the country to the current dismal state. By this he was referring to his political adversary former prime minister Imran Khan and his alleged past supporters.

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“By the grace of Allah, the country became a nuclear power in our time… the person [referring to himself] who made the country a nuclear power is deported, imprisoned and sentenced to 27 years by the court of terrorism,” he regretted.

He alleged that former army chief General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa and Lt Gen (retd) Faiz Hameed in collusion with former chief justices of Supreme Court Saqib Nisar and Asif Saeed Khosa ousted him from power.

“A person who frees the country from load shedding, four judges sit and send home the prime minister with the mandate of millions of people, behind him was General Bajwa and General Faiz, and their tools were Saqib Nisar and Asif Saeed Khosa,” he maintained.

Nawaz further said that he and other PML-N leaders, including his family members including Maryam Nawaz Sharif and Hamza Shehbaz Sharif suffered jail terms and hardships without committing any crime.

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The three-time prime minister said that today India had reached the moon, the G20 meeting was held there, claiming that when he became the prime minister in December 1990, India imitated Pakistan’s economic reforms, which his government started.

“Where has India reached today by replicating our economic agenda and where are we left? When Vajpayee became prime minister, India did not have one billion dollars in the treasury, but today it has foreign reserves of $600 billion,” said Nawaz.

“Today, the prime minister of Pakistan is forced to extend his hand in front of other countries,” said the former PM in the context of prevalent economic conditions of the country.

Nawaz said that his party would not get indulged in pursing political vendetta against their opponents.

“We have no desire for revenge… we do not want any revenge. However, Allah does not forgive people who make people suffer,” he added.