ISLAMABAD - Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday expressed grave concern over the way the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz was being targeted ostensibly to restrict its political activities which would neither be good for democracy nor for the country.
The PML-N Quaid expressed these views while chairing a party meeting at the Punjab House. The overall political strategy of the PML-N for upcoming general election, ongoing corruption cases against the Sharif family in NAB courts and the expected verdict and its impact on the party’s election campaign also figured in at the meeting.
It was the unanimous view of the participants that some hidden forces were out to hamper PML-N political activities across the country as the party was getting a huge response to Sharif’s narrative of respecting the sanctity of vote and the establishment of a true justice system in the country, a participant of the meeting told The Nation.
Prominent among those who attended the huddle included Senator Pervaiz Rashid, Khawaja Asif, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Javid Latif, Irfan Siddiqui, Zahid Hamid and Barrister Zafarullah.
The meeting condemned the life attempt on Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal in harshest words and said that certain forces did not want to see the political system grow and such acts would surely damage the political system in the country.
Sharif said that by attacking the party leaders, “these anti-democracy elements would not lower their morale and they would turn the table on anti-democracy forces in the coming general election”.
The meeting also reviewed the party’s electioneering for upcoming general election in the light of the terrorist attacks on the senior party leaders which started from throwing of ink on Kh Asif in Sialkot and hurling of shoe on former prime minister Sharif in Lahore.
It was decided that the party leaders while addressing the public rallies would adopt certain security measures to avoid any untoward incident during their public addresses while efforts would be made to check the entry of miscreants in the public rallies, especially with firearms.
Sharif said that such coercive tactics would not lower the popularity of the PML-N in the hearts of the people of Pakistan and hoped that the party would return to power with more thumping majority than the 2013 elections.
Sources aware of the deliberations told The Nation that certain security measures would be taken for in the public rallies to be addressed by the central party leaders particularly by Sharif and Maryam Nawaz to avoid untoward incidents.
The party leaders were advised to address the public rallies from bullet-proof rostrums and avoid close contact with the participants of the rallies who would not be allowed to come closer to the party leaders.
Sources said that the schedule of public addresses of Sharif was also changed due to security reasons and he (Sharif) was not scheduled to address and public rally during Ramazan and would hold meetings with representatives and notables from different parts of the country instead of addressing public gatherings.
The fresh schedule of Sharif’s public addresses would be given after Ramazan and they would continue till the holding of the next general election in the last week of July.
