Campaign talk: Nawaz promises Hazara province

Vote for the economy revival PML-N chief tells people in Haripur, Abbottabad, Swabi and Peshawar.

SWABI/ HARIPUR/ PESHAWAR:

Chief of his own faction of Pakistan Muslim League-N, Nawaz Sharif promised on Tuesday to fulfill all demands of the people of Hazara by forming a separate province for them and initiating mega development projects, if he came to power. He said this while addressing separate public meetings in Haripur, Abbottabad, Swabi and Peshawar.

Nawaz, in his second trip to Hazara in the last 9 days, said the crowd at his rally indicated that the PML-N had already won the elections and was set to resume the process of development in the country.

Criticising the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Nawaz said the PPP had been eliminated from the political scene, and had left behind its B-team.

“Zardari has run away leaving behind a khilari (player) who would also face the same fate in the next few days,” he said while referring to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan.

He said he would resolve all concerns of the people, from lack of development and energy crises to unemployment, and transform the country into a developed one.

“We would give your Hazara province, Tarbela Dam’s royalty, build expressways and reconstruct Khanpur-Taxila Road,” he said.

Swabi

While addressing party activists in Swabi Cricket Ground, Nawaz said after May 11, PML-N would triumph and once again launch multiple development projects in the area, adding that if people voted for his party, they could change the fate of the nation.

He claimed he would launch the second phase of the Pehur Canal, provide gas to every household and solve the electricity problems in the region.

He said that people should not vote for him to make him the prime minister, but to redeem the nation’s economy. He lashed out at the previous government for pushing the country to the brink of destruction due to their corrupt policies.

Though Swabi was among one of the biggest electricity producing districts in Pakistan, according to Nawaz, it was left in the darkness because of the previous government’s corruption.

Peshawar

Delivering a speech to party workers on Tuesday, Nawaz Sharif said it was his dream to complete a motorway from Peshawar to Kabul onwards till Tashkent. The PML-N chief, who hardly spent 10 minutes delivering a speech on his last election campaign visit to Peshawar, attempted to attract the youth and said all jobless degree holders would get credit facilities.

In an apparent reference to his opponent, Imran Khan, Nawaz said he did not just play on the ground, but also delivered by participating in the country’s development.

Flanked by party candidates from Peshawar, Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, Nasir Musazai, Sifatullah and Afzal Pinyala, Nawaz said, “We would make the whole region a land of peace again,” adding that Musharraf and Zardari had wreaked havoc in the country.

Rawalpindi

Addressing a gathering in Liaquat Bagh, Nawaz said he did not come to Rawalpindi for his personal interests but for the sake of the country which is beset by a number of problems.

“Pakistan is facing joblessness, energy crises, illiteracy, suicide attacks, lawlessness in Karachi, Balochistan and tribal areas and economic instability,” he said.

“I cannot tolerate to see my country in such crises,” he said adding that if people wanted to rid the country of the prevailing crises, they should vote for PML-N.

“The development work we carried out in those two years could not happen in the last 10 years. Pakistan would have become an Asian economic tiger had we been allowed to complete our tenure,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 8^th, 2013.