PML-N not to allow even a minute's delay in polls: Sharif

Asks who informed Imran that a ‘big wicket’ was about to fall just two days before Khawaja Asif's...

LAHORE: Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday said that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) competition is not with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) but against ‘them’, a statement which alludes to the military establishment.

Nawaz Sharif was taking parliamentarians and party workers from Lahore, Sahiwal and DG Khan Division. “Our party will not let elections be delayed by even a minute, let alone a month or more,” said Nawaz. He added that PML-N and the people of Pakistan would fight against delays in the elections.

He was responding to a statement attributed to PTI chief Imran Khan regarding an expected delay in the elections. With regard to the "conspiracies against democracy", he said that leaders in Pakistan are hanged, incarcerated, sent in exile or entangled in false cases.



Referring to the fall of Dhaka, the former premier said that Pakistan has already lost its limbs by not giving a mandate to the majority. He added that if the mandate of the majority was respected back in the 1970s, Pakistan would have stayed united.

“We will not let our country function the way it has for the past 70 years…We will change this system,” said Nawaz Sharif.

He said that Imran Khan had to cut short his tour of Lahore after he was informed that there were no people to welcome him. He added that Khan had to flee to Islamabad with the pretext that a big wicket of PML-N was about to fall and related the disqualification of Khawaja Asif with Khan’s announcement.

Nawaz asked how Khan knew about Asif’s disqualification in advance and how Khan could claim with a tone of certainty that the elections would be delayed.

The former premier also alleged that Khan fears the ballot and was "trying to hide behind the umpires".

“We wouldn’t have received a heartwarming welcome from the people of K-P during our mass contact drives if Khan had performed in K-P,” he said.



“The only thing PTI has done is promoting a culture of disrespect,” said Nawaz, adding that Khan has continued to flipflop on his positions.  He said that Imran made his party vote for the PPP despite knowing who bought his MPA’s during the Senate elections.

“Earlier, Imran Khan stood behind Tahirul Qadri, and now he stands alongside PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari, who he had termed as a disease,” said Nawaz and asked that what kind of ‘Naya Pakistan’ he was trying to make.

Nawaz also criticised the Senate elections. He said that what had to be done was done against the PML-N. “This needs to be probed...who bought votes, who sold votes, and how did a nobody become Senate chairman, a man who is not even known in his neighbourhood,” said the former premier.

“We don’t mind our opponent’s criticism because their own track records are not clean,” said Sharif, adding that despite all that what was happening, he saw a ray of hope. He said that they may have made mistakes and added “We are on the just side…will stand our ground and continue fighting for our rights,” said Sharif.

The gathering was also attended by PML-N President and Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Federal Minister Pervaiz Malik, Senator Pervaiz Rasheed, Senator Mushahidullah Khan, MNA Hamza Shehbaz, Maryam Nawaz, and other party leaders.

Earlier in the day, PML-N Punjab dissected 11 points agenda given by Imran Khan in Lahore. According to the document provided to media, PML-N Punjab claimed that it has already achieved the milestones Khan was trying to set for the next five years. It also highlighted issues that were missing from Khan’s 11-point agenda.

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