'Bill Clinton offered $5bn to not conduct nuclear test'

International Desk: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said on Wednesday that had he not cared for Pakistan, he would have accepted former US president Bill Clinton's offer of $5 billion for not carrying out nuclear tests in 1998.

"I would have taken $5 billion from the US for not carrying out nuclear tests if I were not loyal to the country," Sharif, battling for survival in office over corruption and money laundering charges, said while addressing a political gathering in Sialkot in Punjab on Wednesday.

Pakistan had held the tests within days of India - under PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee - conducting the nuclear implosions at Pokhran in May 1998.

Sharif said this amid a growing chorus for his resignation as PM by his opponents after an investigation team, tasked by the Supreme Court to probe his offshore assets and companies revealed by the Panama Papers leak, found him and his children guilty of perjury, forging documents and concealing assets. Sharif warned his opponents that if he was being held "accountable" today, it would be their turn tomorrow.

Agencies


risingbd/Dhaka/July 20, 2017/Rasel Parvez/Nasim