Heading for by-polls: People not interested in politics of protest, says Hamza

Sharif scion spends busy day in Lodhran

LAHORE: Hamza Shahbaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) said on Wednesday that the people had voted for progress and prosperity in the recently concluded local government elections.

Sharif made the remarks while talking to newsmen on the occasion of scores of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) men from Lodhran abandoning the party for the PML-N. He said the results of the LG polls demonstrated that the people were not interested in politics of protest. Sharif said those who had squandered 126 days of the nation still had time to make a positive contribution.

The PML-N MNA said the results of the forthcoming NA-154 by-polls in Lodhran would be no different from those of preceding by-elections. Sharif said Pakistan—a nuclear power with a population of 200 million—wanted to talk to India as an equal. Responding to a query, he said the people were curious to know why PTI chairman Imran Khan travelled on an aircraft owned by an individual who had had loans worth tens of millions of rupees written off during the Musharraf era.

Sharif said one was at a loss to understand why people of Aleem Khan and Jehangir Tareen’s ilk had been awarded tickets to contest elections by those who claimed to transform the nation into a naya Pakistan.

The Sharif scion spent a busy day in Lodhran in connection with the forthcoming by-elections there. He had several meetings with delegations of traders, farmers and industrialists at the residence of Amin Tahir Ghauri and Salman Mangla. Those who called on him pledged to actively participate in the party’s electoral campaign. MNA Abdul Karim also met Sharif and pledged their unconditional support for the PML-N in the upcoming by-elections. Senator Saud Majeed and MNA Abdul Rehman Kanju were also present on the occasion.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 10^th, 2015.