PML-N rally: ‘State machinery enlisted to ensure big DG Khan show

Revenue, Police officials corroborate; say they have to meet the target of a hundred thousand people.

LAHORE:

Punjab government is using state machinery to make Nawaz Sharif’s address to a public gathering in Dera Ghazi Khan on October 19 (today) a success, Pakistan Peoples Party’s Deputy Parliamentary Leader in Punjab Assembly Shaukat Mehmood Basra alleged on Tuesday.

Basra said the government had directed even Bahawalpur division administration to help send people from their districts to attend the gathering.

“They should wait for the next general election. Nawaz Sharif will cause PPP government no harm by addressing a gathering of revenue officials,” he said.

Several revenue and police officials in DG Khan told The Express Tribune that officials in DG Khan, Muzaffargarh, Layyah and Rajanpur have been directed to ensure an impressive gathering at DG Khan cricket stadium on October 19 (today). They said all revenue officials have been told to attend the event and bring ‘supporters’ with them.  They said they have been given a target of a hundred thousand people for attendance at Wednesday’s gathering. Police officials in these districts have been told to come up with a suitable traffic plan so that people headed towards the venue suffer no traffic jams, they added. The address is to mark the beginning of PML-N’s ‘Go Zardari’ campaign. The party plans to hold rallies all over the country and highlight issues like load shedding, corruption and price hike and mobilise people against the PPP government.

DG Khan district coordination officer Iftikhar Sahu declined comment on the allegations.

District Police Officer Malik Tasadduq Hayat denied that his department had been directed to bring people to the gathering. He said around 5,000 police officials would be performing security duties at and around the cricket ground.

PML-N MNA Sirdar Saifuddin Khosa, son of Senior Adviser to the Chief Minister Sirdar Zulfiqar Khan Khosa, also rejected the suggestion that his party or the provincial government was using state machinery to make the gathering a success.

“We don’t need to use such tactics. People from as far as Bahawalpur have asked us to arrange transport for them to attend the gathering,” he said. He said all PML-N MNAs and MPAs from DG Khan and neighbouring districts would attend the gathering with their supporters.

The DG Khan rally is to be followed by a gathering in Faisalabad on October 19.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 19^th, 2011.