Says party will bring an end to power cuts; build motorway from Lahore to Karachi.
Days after the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf kick-started its election campaign in Lahore, PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif attracted tens of thousands in Mansehra in a show of strength of his own – promising a new era of growth and economic recovery under his rule.
“Last time we carried out nuclear explosions. Now we will carry out economic explosions,” Nawaz told the crowd in the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) stronghold, where supporters packed a huge cricket stadium.
The twice elected premier highlighted his previous stints during which Pakistan became a nuclear power, but reminded the crowd how his government had been sent packing first by Ghulam Ishaq Khan and later by General Pervez Musharraf.
Nawaz said his party would have changed the destiny of the country if he had been allowed to complete his constitutional term, while jogging the crowd’s memory for building the motorway from Peshawar to Lahore and executing successful economic reforms. “We will generate 50,000 megawatt of electricity, instead of only bridging a shortfall of 5,000,” said Nawaz while promising an end to chronic power cuts – a veiled attack on the outgoing government.
Security was extremely tight at the rally with police commandos patrolling with AK-47s and a buffer zone ringed with barbed wire around the stage, but the PML-N chief managed to rile up the crowd by ordering a bullet-proof screen around his podium to be removed.
“I am not fond of power. I only want to see my country progress and my people prosper,” he told the crowd.
He went on to promise that if his party was elected a third time, he would build a motorway from Lahore to Karachi, the country’s business capital, among other development projects including an airport in Mansehra and roads from Jhalkad to Chilas and Thakot to Tashkent, besides.
The PML-N chief also reiterated his party’s promise to create a Hazara province if he came into power.
The rally, which even featured a live tiger in a cage, was being hosted by the ex-nazim of Mansehra district Sardar Mohammad Yousaf. Two police officials estimated the crowd at up to 30,000. The stadium was decorated with large portraits of Sharif and banners reading “Tiger of Pakistan, we love you” and “Welcome prime minister of Pakistan, pride of Pakistan”.
Nawaz first became prime minister in 1990 but was sacked three years later on corruption charges. He returned to power in 1997 after an election but was ousted in the 1999 coup by Musharraf and was sent into exile in Saudi Arabia in 2000.
He returned in November 2007 just before the February 2008 general election, won by the PPP on a wave of support following the assassination of its leader Benazir Bhutto in December 2007.
Mohammad Afzal, a student aged 18, said he would vote for Sharif.
“Only he can save us from load-shedding and control inflation,” Afzal told AFP.
Earlier in the day, PML-Q MNA Shah Jehan Yusuf and former PML-Q MPA Wajeehuz Zaman Khan also announced their arrival in PML-N ranks.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 26th, 2013.
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