Seeking allies: On Sindh tour, Nawaz promises ‘change’

PML-N chief says if voted to power, his party will ‘correct all wrongs’ of Sindh.

HYDERABAD:

Political activity is gathering momentum, heralding the advent of election season in the country.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif courted Sindh’s voters on Saturday, promising them “real change”, if his party is voted to power in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

“You will have to accept that you chose the wrong leaders in the [last] elections,” he told a public meeting organised by the Sindh United Party (SUP) in Hala, Matiari district. “All wrongs in Sindh will be corrected if you make the right choice when you vote in the next elections,” he added.

Vanquished from Sindh in the 2008 elections, the PML-N has been courting nationalist and opposition parties in the province for an electoral alliance ahead of the 2013 elections.

However, despite winning support from the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional and National Peoples Party, the PML-N is still far from gelling an alliance capable of giving the PPP a tough time in its traditional stronghold.

In an attempt to appease the Sindhi nationalists, Nawaz strongly criticised the Sindh Peoples Local Government Act (SPLGA) 2012, calling it a “divisive law”.

“We do not favour a divisive system which creates hatred.  If (new) laws are promulgated, they should apply to everyone equally… one part of the province should not have a system different from the other,” he said referring to the SPLGA.



The PML-N chief also blamed the government for the recent deaths from a deadly measles outbreak in Sindh. “The government stood by helplessly while around 550 children died of measles, an illness which is almost non-existent in the rest of the world,” he said.

He also criticised the PPP-led coalition government for failing to control rampant violence in Karachi.

Talking about Minhajul Quran International (MQI)’s long march, Nawaz said Dr Tahirul Qadri’s attempt “to portray Pakistan as a country with a corrupt leadership and non-functional institutions”.

“We can’t accept that a few thousand people held 180 million Pakistanis hostage to their unconstitutional demands,” he said.

Speaking at the meeting, SUP president and convener of the Save Sindh Committee Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah also hit out at the ruling party for passing SPLGA 2012 and other “failed policies”.

He also criticised the Benazir Income Support Programme saying that by giving the poor Rs1,000 stipend instead of employment opportunities, the PPP turned them into beggars. Shah cautioned Nawaz against forming an alliance with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement saying the party was known for switching loyalties.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 20^th, 2013.