Hamza Shahbaz, son of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, gave the main speech at the rally, lashing out at the federal government for alleged discrimination against the Punjab in the distribution of electricity in the country.
He also brought up the Malik Riaz scandal and denounced the federal government for what he called “conspiring against the judiciary”. He said that party chief Nawaz Sharif was prepared to organise a long march in support of the judiciary and foil the conspiracy.
Party MNAs and MPAs had been tasked with bringing large numbers of people to Neela Gumbad, but the venue, which has a capacity of around 25,000, was not filled. Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Rana Mashhood Khan and MNAs Bilal Yaseen and Khawaja Imran Nazir had bussed in several low level government employees of Aziz Bhatti Town and Data Gunj Bakhsh Town.
PML-N leaders Khawaja Nazir and Chaudhry Ghafoor said Shahbaz Sharif had been due to give a speech but had been forced to cancel because of his schedule. They said that the rally was always meant to be led by Hamza Shahbaz.
However, other party officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that the chief minister’s participation had been dependent on the size of the rally. They said that Sharif had been informed at 7:15pm that the turnout was not huge, and so he had decided not to participate.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 18th, 2012.
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