PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif talks to the media as he presents his party manifesto during a press conference in Lahore. PHOTO: AFP
Chief of his own faction of the Pakistan Muslim League, Nawaz Sharif is scheduled to launch his party’s election campaign from Mansehra today (Monday), party sources said.
Although the PML-N informally launched its campaign before the dissolution of assemblies, Sharif has opted to formally start canvassing from district Mansehra following the announcement of the election schedule.
The PML-N chief will address a public gathering at the Thakra Stadium at 10am where Shah Jehan Yousuf, the former Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) MNA from NA-20 is also expected to announce joining the PML-N.
Shah Jehan’s father Sardar Yousuf, a former district nazim and a key PML-Q figure in Hazara, had already joined the PML-N and will contest the general elections from NA-20 on a PML-N ticket.
The party’s district chapter has been engaging PML-N supporters to attend Sharif’s address at the stadium. The party wants its loyalists to hear directly from the chief about carving out a separate Hazara province from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), a proposal that has been incorporated in the PML-N manifesto.
The Sharifs have always called Hazara their stronghold and Nawaz himself was elected twice from NA-18 Abbottabad II in 1990 and 1993. His party won a total of 19 provincial assembly seats from K-P in the past.
Pir Sabir Shah of Haripur was elected as chief minister in 1993 on a PML-N ticket but was overthrown by former Pakistan Peoples Party leader Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao after four months. From 1997 to Oct 12 1999, Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan Abbasi remained the PML-N chief minister in the province.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 25th, 2013.
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