Nawaz Sharif is an ideology: PML-N chief
Former prime minister and PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif on Sunday addressed a public gathering in Abbottabad, formally launching his party's campaign for the upcoming general election. Sharif began his address with a trademark declaration of love to his audience. "Nawaz Sharif really loves you too," he told the crowd. "Today, I am remembering 2013. The same passion was present then," he said, surveying the gathering.
The former premier, who was disqualified from public office by the Supreme Court in the Panama Papers verdict, told his supporters that "no court's decision can break the ties" between him and his following in Abbottabad. He recalled developments made by his government since 2013, including infrastructural and power projects.
The Haripur motorway to Havelian will be completed shortly, he said. "I may not be prime minister anymore, but the motorway will continue being built." People speak of a 'minus-Nawaz Sharif formula', he said. "But Nawaz Sharif is an ideology and this ideology will bring revolutionary change across Pakistan," he claimed.
"Nawaz Sharif is not a loser. If he was a loser, you and I would not be friends," he told the crowd. "Will you support me in this struggle?"
The ousted premier claimed that not a single penny's worth of corruption had been proved against him or his family members. "When all efforts to do so were unsuccessful, the SC said that I did not take a salary from my son, so I was disqualified," he said. Sharif reiterated the same statements he has made since he was disqualified: asking the public whether they accepted the decision "these five people" the SC bench ? had made for the people of Pakistan, and told the crowd that they would have to side with him if they did not.
He railed against the apex court, which he claimed had no qualms about taking an oath from former president Pervez Musharraf. "That's why the caravan keeps getting looted," he said, referring to a small quotation in the SC order on the judgement, "and why democracy kept going off the rails." "Lots of games like this have been played time and time again," he warned.
The PML-N MNAs, MPAs, leaders and activists across Hazara division are persuading their voters, sympathisers and other people to attend the public meeting in large numbers as observers believe irrespective of the dynamics of the new political order that is clearly advocating little future role for the PML-N in the national politics, Nawaz Sharif will use his political clout for winning the sympathies of the people of Hazara at least for getting a piece of pie in the future government in the province.
Currently, the PML-N has five MNAs and seven MPAs and a woman on reserved seat from entire Hazara division but one of the MPAs from PK-56, Mansehra, Wajeehuzzaman Khan parted ways with it to join the PTI after the cancelation of party membership and filing of disqualification reference on the charge of misconduct in the last Senate elections. The PML-N MPAs face the scathing criticism from their voters for not bringing development funds to the division though the party is in power at the federal level.
MNA from NA-20, Mansehra, and federal minister Sardar Mohammad Yousuf, former PM Nawaz Sharif's son-inlaw and NA-21 Mansehra MNA retired captain Mohammad Safdar and National Assembly deputy speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi have, despite differences within the party, succeeded in attracting the limelight through gas, road and power projects in their respective constituencies. However, the overall performance of PML-N MNA Babar Nawaz Khan from Haripur, Senator and minister Salahuddin Tirmizi of Mansehra, former governor and sitting adviser to PM on civil aviation Sardar Mahtab Ahmad Khan from Abbottabad and Sarzamin Khan from Kohistan regarding the region's development is unimpressive.