Pakistan's former PM Nawaz Sharif says he was ousted in 1999 for opposing Kargil
Lahore (PTI): Pakistan's former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday said he was ousted from the government in 1999 by (late) Gen Pervez Musharraf for opposing the Kargil misadventure, as he underlined the importance of having good relations with India and other neighbours.
The three-time prime minister questioned why he was ousted from the office of the prime minister prematurely.
"I should be told why I was ousted in 1993 and 1999. When I opposed the Kargil plan saying it should not happen... I was ousted (by Gen Pervez Musharraf). And later what I said proved right," Sharif said here while talking to the aspirants of his party tickets for upcoming polls.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supreme leader said that on all three occasions being the premier he was delivering but he was sent packing and that he did not know why.
"I want to know why I was ousted every time," he asked.
Sharif also talked about the visit of two Indian prime ministers to Pakistan only when he was the prime minister of Pakistan.
"We have delivered on every front. During my tenure as PM, two Indian prime ministers visited Pakistan. Modi sahab and Vajpayee sahab had come to Lahore," the former prime minister said, stressing improved relations with India and other neighbouring countries.
"We will have to improve our relations with India, Afghanistan, and Iran. We need to make more stronger relations with China," Sharif said.
He regretted that Pakistan lagged behind its neighbours in economic growth development.
Lashing out at Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party's jailed former chairman Imran Khan, Sharif said he did not know why an inexperienced man was given the reins of the country.
"The economy witnessed a downfall during Imran Khan's government (2018-2202). Then the Shehbaz Sharif government took over in April 2022 and rescued the country from default."
Sharif reiterated his demand for accountability of former military generals and judges for ruining the country by ousting his government in 2017.
"Those who brought this country to this level should be made accountable as patriotic people can't do this to their country," he said.
On Friday, Sharif had said: "We do not want to come into power to roam around in luxury cars but we want accountability of those (who) ruined this country and made false cases against us."
A month before his return to Pakistan after four years of self-imposed exile in the UK, Sharif had hinted at bringing former army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, former ISI head Lt-Gen Faiz Hamid, and former chief justices of Pakistan Saqib Nisar and Asif Saeed Khosa for their crime of ousting his government and causing economic disaster.
Sharif is holding meetings daily to award party tickets for the February 8 general elections next year.
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Govt using women's quota pretext to push delimitation: TMC
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New Delhi (PTI): The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Monday accused the government of using the pretext of early implementation of women's reservation law to "bulldoze" its "real agenda of delimitation".
The TMC said it has always supported women's reservation, but the government cannot "rush" through a bill that will "change the political map" of India based on the 2011 Census.
Parliament is set to meet from April 16 to 18 to consider bills to ensure the implementation of the 33 per cent quota in legislative bodies for women in the 2029 elections. It includes increasing the strength of the Lok Sabha from 543 to 816 seats, with 273 seats reserved for women, and amendments to the Delimitation Act to enable redrawing of constituencies.
In a post on X, TMC Rajya Sabha leader Derek O'Brien shared a video of his earlier speech on the Constitution (128th Amendment) Bill, 2023 -- also known as the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam -- and underlined his party’s long-standing advocacy for women’s reservation.
He recalled that TMC chief Mamata Banerjee had raised the issue in Parliament as early as July 14, 1998.
Highlighting his party’s track record, O’Brien pointed to the proportion of women candidates fielded and elected by the TMC, stating that the party had given 41 per cent tickets to women in 2014 and currently has one of the highest shares of women MPs.
"Modi govt cannot rush through a bill in a special parliament session bang in the middle of Assembly Polls, a bill that will change the political map of India based on the 2011 census (data which is fifteen years old) in 2026 without greater discussion (sic)," TMC Deputy Leader in the Rajya Sabha Sagarika Ghose said on X.
"Mr Modi-Shah must be reminded: India is not a single-party democracy. Bulldozing and bullying is against the parliamentary spirit," she said.
In a post on X, TMC leader and former Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale accused the government of running a "fake and malicious agenda " claiming it wants “early reservations for women in Parliament”.
"In reality, Modi is using women as an excuse to bulldoze his real agenda of delimitation (which is redrawing boundaries of Lok Sabha & Assembly seats in states to benefit the BJP)," he alleged.
He said that at the time of passage of the bill on women's reservation in 2023, opposition parties had expressed concern that its implementation would be delayed, but the government had ignored them, and said it would happen after the Census in 2026.
"Now, suddenly, just when Bengal and Tamil Nadu are going to elections, Modi decides that delimitation will be done before the 2026 Census. Instead of conducting delimitation based on India’s actual population, the Modi government has come up with its own unknown formula," he said.
He questioned the connection between delimitation and women's reservation, and what is stopping the government from implementing it on the existing 543 seats without delimitation.
The Union Cabinet has cleared draft bills to operationalise the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam ahead of the 2029 Lok Sabha elections. The proposed changes include increasing the strength of the Lok Sabha from 543 to 816 seats, with 273 seats reserved for women.
The legislative package is expected to include a Constitution amendment bill to modify provisions of the Act, alongside amendments to the Delimitation Act to enable redrawing of constituencies in line with the expanded House strength.
Another bill is also likely to extend the implementation of the reservation framework to Union Territories with legislatures, including Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and Puducherry.
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