SHEIKHUPURA: “The votes that go against PML-N are the ones which insult the sanctity of your vote, you have to protect your vote,” said ousted prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)’s President Nawaz Sharif on Thursday while addressing a party rally at Company Bagh.
“Will you take revenge from those who disqualified me, in the 2018 elections?” he asked the crowd.
Earlier, former premier’s daughter Maryam Nawaz addressed the rally and congratulated the party workers for arranging a successful rally.
Nawaz said he has not seen a bigger public rally in Sheikhupura, adding that: “Judging by today’s crowd, it seems like they will go beyond Lodhran in the upcoming general elections”.
“The way you have welcomed Nawaz Sharif, who is not the prime minister today, is an unprecedented example of my experience with Sheikupura,” he expressed with jubilation.
“I am the ineligible prime minister, aren’t I? Tell me from your heart, am I ineligible or not?” he asked the jam-packed crowd and woefully added that he had, however, been declared unqualified.
He lamented that he was not allowed to complete his five-year tenure despite being elected by people of Pakistan and criticised the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for neglecting development while his brother, Shehbaz, had contributed to the ‘transformation of Lahore’.
“God willing, the [ballot] boxes of [those talking about] the umpire’s fingers will remain empty in the next general elections,” he said.
The former PM affirmed that he is only afraid of God and vowed to change the country’s destiny if the people helped him regain his position. “This country will avenge the last 70 years of cruelty and oppression both you and I are facing. Otherwise, if things that have been happening for the past 70 years are allowed to continue, the country will be in grave danger” he told the crowd.
Keeping up with his new practice, the former premier asked party members to show their support for the ‘respect the vote’ movement by raising their hands. Asking a stage sharer for local currency notes of Rs 50, Rs 100 and Rs 5000, he challenged his detractors to prove corruption of any of the said amounts while waving the cash in his hand.
“There are no corruption accusations against me,” Nawaz told PML-N’s supporters. “Its time to say goodbye to those who point fingers.”
Concluding his address, the former PM asked the people of Sheikhupura to pledge their votes for the ruling party.
‘WELL DONE SHEIKHUPURA’
Addressing the rally earlier, Nawaz’s daughter Maryam commended the citizens of Sheikupura for arranging a successful rally which seemed to cover every part of the city.
“I have brought Nawaz’s case to your court today. Do you accept his disqualification, will you let this continue?” Maryam asked the gathering.
She lamented that her father was removed from office, thrice and questioned the neutrality of judges who “speak against Nawaz and then sit on the bench hearing his case”.
In an apparent reference to the Supreme Court’s (SC) powers of intervention, she asked where the Article 184 (3) of the Constitution [which empowers Supreme Court’s intervention in public welfare/human rights issues] disappears when military governments are formed.
The Sharif family departed for the Sheikhupura rally from their residence at Jati Umra and reached Sheikhupura by road.
PML-N officials stated that more than 5,000 chairs were set up and occupied in the rally. According to the district police officer, 1,800 police personnel were deployed for security duty, with 300 posted on the route that the party’s leader travelled by.
Earlier, Federal Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb and Senator Pervaiz Rasheed who were accompanied by Interior Affairs State Minister Tallal Chaudhry visited Sheikhupura to review arrangements for the rally.
Rasheed had claimed that today’s gathering would be the biggest rally in Sheikhpura’s history while talking to the media earlier.
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