With iron hands: ‘PML-N will fight attempts to delay elections’

Party chief demands transparent caretaker setup.

LAHORE:

Sending out a clear warning to the government, chief of the largest opposition party on Thursday declared that all attempts to delay the general elections will be fought with “iron hands”.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Nawaz Sharif – while terming strategies to delay the upcoming general elections a “conspiracy” – said that his party would leave no stone unturned to foil such attempts.

“The conspiracy of delaying the elections for one year is a self-illusion and the PML-N will fight this with iron hands,” said Sharif while talking to a group of new party entrants. The group, which quit the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) Multan chapter, joined the PML-N on Thursday at Raiwind.

Sharif asserted that the only solution to all the problems facing the country lay in fair, transparent and free elections. He vowed that the PML-N would play its due role in convincing the Pakistan Peoples Party-led coalition government to announce a transparent caretaker set-up in the country. “A [transparent] caretaker set-up with consensus is inevitable for the country [if you want to] hold free, fair and transparent general elections,” he said.

The PML-N chief said that his party’s manifesto committee has devised comprehensive policies to address issues in the energy, trade and education sectors.

Sharif – while ruling out the impression that South Punjab had slipped from his party’s grip – said that “South Punjab is PML-N’s stronghold where the party has worked hard particularly during floods”.

He said he hoped that the PML-N would bag a significant number of seats from this area in the upcoming elections.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 27^th, 2012.