LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) supremo and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has urged the institutions to stop shouldering the government, which is about to fall. He was addressing an organisational meeting of PMLN’s Sargodha division here Wednesday.
Several PML-N leaders including former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, former National Assembly speaker Ayaz Sadiq, Owais Leghari and others were present.
Nawaz Sharif said that our governments had repeatedly been suspended and he was arrested as a hijacker. “In the morning I was prime minister and at night I was a hijacker,” he said, adding a case of treason had also been made against him so that he could be hanged. He said in Pakistan prime ministers had been hanged, deported and arrested. He said all the institutions should work in their ambit and stop exceeding their limits.
“Those who have no business with politics should stop interfering with politics,” Nawaz said and maintained that such games had been played in the past and were also being played presently.
Addressing the party leaders and workers, the former prime minister said that if you stand, no force can bend you. He said they should not bow down. He said that Vajpayee had come to Pakistan on foot, respected Pakistan and acknowledged its existence.
He said the present government’s position in UN was that it didn’t have enough votes to convene a meeting on the Kashmir issue. He said he wondered who were still voting for this government.
“Today, our children have been taught rudeness. This change has come,” he said, adding that those who had changed parties repeatedly were in the PTI. “Will they bring about the change,” he questioned and said they got only a few seats in the Cantonment Board elections, which showed that people had lost their confidence in the present regime.
Recalling the development done in his tenure, Nawaz said that Shehbaz Sharif had played a key role in ending load shedding and Pakistan was about to join G20 countries. He said the PML-N government had kept good relations with Ashraf Ghani and Hamid Karzai. “This person has destroyed the office of prime minister and political culture of the country,” he concluded.
PML-N Punjab President Rana Sanaullah said that Pakistanis had elected Nawaz Sharif prime minister three times but every time he was barred from serving the nation and developing the country.
He said all the major projects of Pakistan had been completed during the PMLN era. “These are the testimonies of our glorious heritage and national service and on May 28, under the leadership of Nawaz Sharif, the country had become a nuclear power,” he maintained.
PML-N Vice-President Maryum Nawaz said that the party deserved congratulations on the victory in the Cantonment Board elections. She said the rulers were defeated despite breaking, weakening and rigging the PML-N. She claimed that the PML-N had lost Azad Kashmir’s election but still got 500,000 votes. How did that happen? The people and the country were still suffering from the consequences of rigging in 2018, she added.
Maryum also said that institutions should move away from between the government and the people and let the nation decide whose performance was bad. “Despite claims of being on one page, every institution is speaking against them. Every institution stands against them,” she maintained.
She said now people were not afraid to speak and added that it had been said in the Supreme Judicial Council that people were saying that decisions were made under pressure in the judiciary. The PML-N vice-president said that the rulers knew that now people will not forgive them.
Maryum said that the name of Nawaz Sharif would remain in the minds of the people because of his works. She said that our people were pressured in 2018 and were asked to change the party. If Nawaz Sharif's narrative was wrong then what was right, she questioned?
We should not fall prey to the propaganda of the enemy, Maryum told the party leaders and workers and claimed that the day was not far when they will not even have a candidate and they will be stoned in every constituency.
Former speaker of the National Assembly Ayaz Sadiq said that we have to strengthen our party to the grassroots level. “We are making an application through which the message of the party will reach everyone,” he revealed and added that victory in Cantonment Board elections was the victory of people who had accepted the narrative of Nawaz Sharif.
Former interior minister Ahsan Iqbal said that five people from every union council under 35 years of age will be selected and their age and address will be written in the forms. He asked the party leaders and workers to share the data about women and include them in the organization.
“Those who are loyal to the party and love their leader should be included in it,” he maintained. Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said that sincere workers were always needed for the party.
“Bring forward the people who love the party because they are our strength,” he said, adding we have an ideology and a narrative. “Today the whole country belongs to Nawaz Sharif and the PML-N,” he claimed and said that the government is afraid of this trend and tried to end our plans but could not succeed. They cannot do as much development work as Nawaz and Shahbaz did even if they were reborn, he maintained and stated that PML-N’s narrative was very clear and no one from within the party disagreed with it.
“Today the country is falling below and rising inflation will engulf this government. No other party will talk about the principles except us,” he claimed and said that Bangladesh was progressing only because they were following their Constitution. Other PML-N leaders also spoke.
