KARACHI, Jan 30: Pakistan Muslim League-N President Shahbaz Sharif has said that only a national government, formed on the basis of a new parliament with a five-year agenda, could steer the country out of the current crises.

Highlighting the need for exercising collective wisdom and unity of thought and action, he said no government could eliminate the anarchy, extremism, uprising in the mountains of Balochistan and the NWFP and overcome the law and order situation in cities and towns of Sindh without support of the people.

The PML leader was speaking at a ‘Meet the Press’ programme of the Karachi Press Club on Wednesday afternoon. He was welcomed at the KPC by its secretary, Imtiaz Faran, and president, Najeeb Ahmad.

Elaborating his point, Mr Sharif touched on all pressing issues -- law and order, flour crisis, power outages, written off loans, minting of money by investing in stock markets and real estate by rulers and the flight of capital to Dubai -- and called for eschewing controversial issues.

He said all problems being faced by the country could only be solved with the support of the 160 million people. He said the elimination of poverty, spreading of education and provision of health care for all could only be met through collective wisdom and unity of thought and action. The empowerment of people would remove the sense of deprivation in the common people and restrain adventurists from taking over the government.

Holding Pervez Musharraf’s eight-year rule responsible for all the ills afflicting the country, he said Pakistan was passing through its worst political, judicial and economic crises and the federation was in danger. It was not possible for any single party to overcome those problems, he added. Pakistan could only be saved through national cohesion and collective wisdom, the PML leader reitereated.

In reply to a question, he said if fraudulent elections were held, his party would not accept them and a countrywide movement would be launched and President Musharraf would be the sole responsible for its consequences.

Answering another question, he said President Musharraf should step down, paving the way for an interim government for holding a fair election.

“No doubt participating in the Feb 18 elections is a mistake, but its boycott will be a bigger mistake as there will be no one in parliament to stop President Musharraf from imposing his third martial law on the country, pushing it into a deeper chaos, which may result in bidding a ‘farewell’ to the Quaid-i-Azam’s Pakistan.”

He said they had learned a lesson from the past. Any country where justice was denied could not survive, he said and added that as the PCO judges had taken the oath of loyalty to Pervez Musharraf, he and his party chief Nawaz Sharif had decided, in principle, not to refer the rejection their nomination papers to court as they did not expect justice from the PCO judges.

Mr Sharif said he did not deny that elected governments did not commit mistakes, but it could also not be denied that autocratic rulers had caused bigger losses to Pakistan than political governments. And history was a witness to it that even the worst democracy was better than a benign dictatorship.Referring to the ongoing economic, power and judicial crises in the country, he said despite the repeated tall claims of having filled the national coffer, the State Bank report was a proof that during the last eight years of Pervez Musharraf’s rule it had written off loans of Rs170 billion, which were mostly acquired by those who were advisers or ministers in the cabinet, and since Oct 12, 1999 the Musharraf government had taken additional loans of Rs1,200 billion.

He said if there had been a massive investment in the country, then why the country was facing up to 12 hours of load-shedding daily. And why the government did not increase the power generation capacity to overcome the 5,000mw power shortage, which was badly affecting the economy, agriculture and trade activities.

As for the Kalabagh dam, he said it should not be built at the cost of the federation. It should not be initiated until all the provinces agreed to building it, he said. “Otherwise it will prove fatal to the federation. We should refrain from touching controversial issues,” he said.

The PML-N leader urged the authorities to declare emergency in the power sector and top other power generation resources such as installing thermal, hydal and coal-fired electricity-generating units to meet the power shortage, otherwise Pakistan would suffer irreparable losses.

He said the law and order situation was the worst-ever in the country, and no one was safe from Karachi to Peshawar and people had to hire private guards for their security. The condition in the cities and towns and villages were no different, he added.

He said if we failed to eliminate lawlessness from cities and towns in Sindh and Punjab, extremism and uprising in Balochistan and the NWFP mountainous regions, Pakistan could not make any progress. He said no government could solve these problems without the support of the people.

Shahbaz Sharif said that Karachi is the hub of industries and lifeline of Pakistan. It had no parallel city in the country in terms of a trade and cultural melting pot. Ignoring this city would be a criminal act, he added.