LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has termed those joining the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf cronies of Gen Musharraf who are being presented before the nation with ‘new make-up’.

Plunder of national resources has brought the country to the brink of disaster while a drama is being staged by putting before people Musharraf’s companions after a make-up with tall claims of bringing about a revolution, he said on Sunday.

Inaugurating the Lahore Ring Road Package-15 interchange, named after his elder brother and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, he said: “I may not be called Shahbaz Sharif if I do not expose these faces before the nation.”

He said that on one hand the country was being looted while on the other Musharraf’s companions were being presented before the nation as messiahs, but people fully recognised those faces.

“These are the same people who supported Musharraf in the heinous crime of Lal Masjid. They sided with the dictator when the image of the judiciary was tarnished and the chief justice was dragged. The same people shed the blood of the nation through secrete agreements like the one on drone attacks,” he said.

He said Nawaz Sharif in his capacity as prime minister had put the country on road to progress. He said despite telephone calls by the then US president Bill Clinton and offers of $5 billion in aid, the defence of the country had been made invincible by carrying out six nuclear tests in response to five by India.

“We refused foreign aid soaked with the blood of Pakistanis and such charity cannot be accepted at any cost.”

About the road project, the chief minister said the project of international standard had been completed in two years. He accused the previous Punjab government of having siphoned off billions from the exchequer in the name of Lahore ring road.

MNA Khwaja Saad Rafique and other PML-N leaders also attended the function.

Shahbaz Sharif also laid the foundation stone of the first Bus Rapid Transit System on Ferozepur Road. In the first phase, a 27km track will be built from Gajjumata to Shahadara in collaboration with Turkish companies. A lane will be reserved for buses.

Talking to reporters, he said the transport system was being organised on modern lines in Lahore and other big cities of the province. He said a 15km portion of the transit system would be completed by March.

A representative of Albaraka Company of Turkey, Mustafa Metin Yazar, said it was not a commercial enterprise but an agreement of cooperation.