Sharif kicks off PML-N’s mass-contact drive today

Abbottabad all set to stage maiden power show


Zubair Ayub November 19, 2017
Deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif waves as his son, Hussain Nawaz looks on. PHOTO: REUTERS / FILE

ABBOTTABAD: Deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif is all set to kick off his party’s mass-contact drive today (Sunday), with Abbottabad staging the maiden power show.

In build-up to the public gathering, workers and supporters of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) brought out a huge procession from the main party office in the city located in Hazara division of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Members of the PML-N youth wing were carrying Sharif’s banners and posters while riding cars and motorcycles. The procession passed through Karakoram Highway and turned back from the Mandian area.

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On the eve of the PML-N public gathering, a delegation of party leaders, led by National Assembly Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi, met Baba Haider Zaman, the chief of Tehrik-e-Sooba Hazara, seeking his support.

Baba Zaman promised no disruption during the PML-N show of power, but only after the PML-N leaders assured tabling and approving a resolution during the ongoing session of the National Assembly, calling for the creation of a Hazara province.

In the same context, Sharif is likely to make an announcement regarding a Hazara province in his public address.

Later, Baba Zaman said he would hold a “token protest” in front of PML-N office in Abbottabad. Insisting that there would be no compromise on principles, he said he just wanted to avoid a direct clash with PML-N workers.

“We will continue to wage our struggle for a separate Hazara province. We have been given assurances [of support] by members of a PML-N team who visited my residence on Saturday,” he told The Express Tribune.

Meanwhile, former K-P governor Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan, Senators Pervez Rasheed and Asif Kirmani and National Assembly Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi reviewed the arrangements for the public meeting.

Speaking to media-persons and PML-N workers, Mehtab, Rasheed and Kirmani said their demand for a fair and free trial went unheeded, adding that Sharif and members of his family were being singled out for the accountability process.

They said the Panamagate JIT had found no irregularity and the former prime minister had only been disqualified on the basis of Iqama, not something commensurate with a such heavy penalty.

They sounded sure that the PML-N government would complete its tenure and also form the next government after the general elections.

Categorically rejecting reports on the formation of a “forward bloc” with the ruling party, they insisted that the PML-N leaders were all united under Sharif.

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Abbottabad police have, meanwhile, chalked out a security plan for the PML-N public meeting, calling for extra personnel from other districts of Hazara division.

DPO Abbottabad Syed Ashfaq Anwar deployed extra manpower to control traffic on Sunday. All hotels located near the meeting’s venue are being thoroughly checked and police personnel would man all routes leading to the venue from midnight on Saturday.

According to local leaders of the PML-N, workers and supporters from all over the division, especially from Mansehra, Haripur and Havelian, will come to Abbottabad where Sharif is scheduled to address the public gathering at 2pm.

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