Ending ‘self-exile’: Arbab Rahim blasts PPP upon arrival

To start joint election campaign with Nawaz in Sindh.

LAHORE:

Former Sindh chief minister and head of the Pakistan Muslim League-Likeminded (PML-L) faction Arbab Ghulam Rahim returned to Pakistan after five years late night on Tuesday.

Addressing a PML-L workers convention in Lahore on Wednesday following his arrival from the UAE, Rahim laid out the party’s agenda for the upcoming elections and announced that he, along with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif, would land in lower Sindh soon to formally kick off their joint election campaign in the province.

According to party sources, March 20 will be the likely date for Rahim and Nawaz’s arrival in Sindh. The two leaders will most probably launch their campaign from the Mirpurkhas district, they added.

During his address, Rahim lambasted the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), blaming it for promoting hate among the provinces. He accused the PPP of plundering the public exchequer and vowed that the ruling party would no longer be able to use its ‘Sindh card’.

Talking about PPP’s performance in Sindh in particular, Rahim said the province’s people needed a consistent water supply rather than handouts under the Benazir Income Support Programme. He claimed the PPP had robbed the people of lower Sindh of a consistent water supply through mismanagement and subsequently pinned the blame on Punjab in order to cover its own failure.

Vowing to counter ‘PPP’s policy of promoting hate among the provinces’, he maintained the thousands of people hailing from Sindh gathered at the convention in Lahore were proof that the people of Sindh were patriotic and loved Punjab.

Speaking at the convention, PML-L general secretary Humayun Akhtar said his party desired nothing more than reunion of all Muslim League factions under Nawaz Sharif’s leadership. He sought to distance the party from Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid which he claimed had allied itself with PPP because of a hunger for power.

Rahim meets Shahbaz

After the convention, the PML-L head met Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to discuss the country’s political situation and cooperation in the upcoming polls.

Welcoming Rahim’s return, Shahbaz stressed that country’s survival now depended upon the coming elections. Noting that Pakistan was passing through a critical phase, he hoped that people would vote for an honest and sincere leadership, and take the country towards the right direction.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 14^th, 2013.