Karachi: Former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who now leads the opposition, yesterday vowed to change the fate of Pakistan if people voted for his party.
"If you would give us a chance, your home would be illuminated with lamps and Pakistan will prosper," he promised thousands of people in a rally in Larkana, hometown of slain leader Benazir Bhutto, and a fortified constituency of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party.
Sharif was campaigning in the Sindh province where his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz barely exists. A poor performance of the Pakistan Peoples Party in the elections could however turn the tide in Sharif's favour. "Sindh is changing, Pakistan is changing, and the mind of Larkana residents are changing now," Sharif said.
The former prime minister who was unseated by General Pervez Musharraf in a bloodless coup in 1998 buried the hatchet with Bhutto during his eight years in exile and signed a pact called "Charter of Democracy" that ensured each other's support.
"Had they [President Asif Ali Zardari] honoured the pact, they would have not witnessed such turmoiling days," an angry Sharif said referring to Ali Zardari, who was supported by Sharif in 2007, but severe differences surfaced later that ended up with the PML-N's defection from the government.
"We parted our ways with them after they betrayed us," Sharif explained.
