• He said the previous government tried to debase him.
• They levelled baseless allegations on our family, he maintained.
• “We can forget the differences in the best interest of the country”.

ISLAMABAD: Rejecting any threat of country’s default, PM Shehbaz Sharif on Monday said the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N)-led coalition government has kept national interest above political interest and saved the country from default.

Addressing a news conference in Islamabad, he said that the government was strenuously working to rehabilitate the flood affected people which is a big challenge. He was accompanied by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb and Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal.

Shehbaz Sharif said UK newspaper Daily Mail’s unconditional apology was a success of Pakistanis especially those poor children and mothers who were benefiting from the aid money that was targeted.

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He said it was such a heartless campaign initiated by the Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) that they didn’t bother to think about dignity of the country in their malice of defaming the Sharif family.

The prime minister said the malicious campaign also damaged Pakistan as mistrust was created regarding any funding to our country.

He said Daily Mail’s article mentioned that money amounting to 600 million pounds by DFID to Punjab during 2008 to 2018 was laundered by Shehbaz Sharif and his children.

He said, “Contrary to that, the money was used transparently, and after I sent legal notice to the paper, it lingered litigation for three years but finally this episode ended up in an unconditional apology.”

PM Shehbaz said his government tried to give subsidy to poor people and 1800 billion rupee Kissan Package was an example of that.

He said the previous government tried to debase him, the PML-N and the party supremo. They levelled baseless allegations on our family, he maintained. “We can forget the differences in the best interest of the country. Nawaz Sharif must return to the country,” he maintained.

He also told that the government took foreign debt from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on tough conditions.

Condemning the firing incident from Afghanistan at border, PM Shehbaz said he had convened a meeting to discuss the issue.