Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said that there is no legal hitch in the return of former prime minister and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif to Pakistan, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

The prime minister expressed these views while talking to journalists in Islamabad on Saturday.

He said that Nawaz Sharif’s disqualification was ended after the amendment to the Election Act.

To a question about his relationship with the establishment, the prime minister counter-questioned in which regime his relationships with the establishment turned sour.

“Despite the fact that my relations with the establishment have always been amicable, tell me when and where I was given concessions,” he asked.

To a question about his praise for the Army Chief in a recent ceremony, PM Shehbaz wondered what was wrong with it if he exalted the Chief of Army Staff in his speech.  

The outgoing prime minister said that the matter of the interim prime minister’s appointment would be settled soon. He said that he was scheduled to meet the opposition leader in the National Assembly today in this regard.

To a question about general polls, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that it is up to the Election Commission of Pakistan to announce the election date. He said his party wants that the ECP holds polls at the earliest.

He said that it is the unanimous decision of his party that if it gets a majority vote in the next election, then PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif would become the prime minister.

PM Shehbaz held that after the amendment to the Election Act, Nawaz’s disqualification ended. He said there is no legal hurdle in the return of the former prime minister and his elder brother.  

Then the outgoing prime minister praised the previous Nawaz Sharif-led PMLN government which eliminated the 20-hour-long loadshedding across the country.

Keeping in view the rising circular debt in the energy sector, PM Shehbaz said that the power sector needs major surgery.

He confessed that his government took tough decisions and even damaged his party’s vote bank. “But we have saved the state. I think that if the state has been saved, then we have saved everything,” he added.

PM Shehbaz said that for the last 16 months, he had been running the government in the most challenging circumstances. But our government was not involved in any corruption scandal, he enunciated.

He said that in the next general elections, slogans would be raised “Vote Ko Izat Do” (Give Respect to Vote).

He lamented that the previous PTI government did not consider safeguarding the interests of the state. He said that he had got a telephone call from the Chinese Ambassador on Sept 3, 2014, in which the ambassador told him about the cancellation of the Chinese President’s visit to Pakistan due to PTI’s sit-in. He condemned the PTI’s deplorable attitude at that time.

The outgoing prime minister vowed that he would never disclose the state secrets of his government’s 16-month tenure.

Reporter Awais Kiyani