Kh Asif believes general elections can be called at any time

RAWALPINDI   -  Opposition Leader in National Assembly and PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif said Saturday that the victory of PML-N in the Cantonment Board elections indicated that if a free and fair general election is held in 2023, PMLN would register a sweeping victory.

While addressing the worker’s convention in Rawalpindi, Shehbaz Sharif said that the people of Rawalpindi and its adjoining areas buried the PTI in its place of origin, the cantonment boards. He said this victory was an expression of the people’s rejection of the selected Prime Minister who was imposed on the nation and had obliterated the economy of the country and destroyed the lives of the people by pushing them into abject poverty and starvation. He went on to say that his PML-N party would bury PTI politically in 2023 general elections, once and for all.

The PMLN President said that the Imran Khan government had annihilated the socioeconomic state of the country and had brought it to a point where people were dying because they could not afford medical treatment. 

“Today, a mother cannot save her ailing daughter because Imran had stopped free medicines at the public hospitals. Today, a father cannot feed his family because Imran Khan’s incompetence took away millions of jobs instead of giving the promised 10 million jobs. Today, the electricity, gas, petrol, sugar, flour and other essential commodities had been pushed beyond the buying power of the people. Today, New taxes were hammered on the public every second day. Imran promised 5 million houses for poor but today people are unable to pay rent for their humble aboads. And with all this crushing the masses, Imran Khan is telling them not to panic because all is well”, he said.

Shehbaz said this inflation rate and this unemployment had pushed the people into a death trap and the only way to get rid of it was to get rid of Imran Khan and his government. He said the time had come to rise up against this cruelty, indifference and injustice to take back their country from these looters and obliterates. He took a pledge from the participants of the convention to work day and night with total dedication for a great Pakistan of the future. He asked them to get ready to protest against this unbearable inflatio and rescue the country from selected Prime Minister and make it the Pakistan of Quaid-e-Azam.

The entire nation knows nothing is well under this government which was why they were praying for the return of PMLN government that provided them jobs and kept life affordable, he said. They are reminiscing over the premiership of Nawaz Sharif that kept people’s welfare atop his agenda, who served the people selflessly and worked to keep their dignity.

 He said had Nawaz been given his rightful fourth term, Pakistan would have been among the top economies of the country instead of being relegated by international financial institutions. He reminded how Nawaz ended load-shedding, terrorism, built thousands of kilometers of motorways, installed over 14,000 megawatts of electricity, built schools, colleges, hospitals, introduced Health Card, created 5 million jobs, and brought the gift of CPEC to Pakistan. But today the PTI government was bent on defaming, defiling and badmouthing the CPEC the consequences of which could be devastating for Pakistan both internationally and internally, he warned.

Shehbaz congratulated the PMLN leadership and candidates from Rawalpindi and its adjoining cities. He said it was the right of the people of Pakistan that all future elections be held with tge same transparency and fairness as the Cantonment Board Elections were.

PML-N stalwarts including Khawaja Asif and Hamza Shehbaz Sharif were in attendance as party’s vice president and voice of the hardliners Maryam Nawaz stayed away from the proceedings. In the polls held on September 12, the PTI managed to secure 63 seats while the PML-N won 59 seats in the cantonment elections across the country. “Our success in the cantonment board elections is not ordinary,” Shehbaz said, and noted that the party had performed even better in Rawalpindi than Lahore, a city considered their stronghold. “We wiped out the PTI,” he declared.

 The PML-N president demanded that the next elections be held in a transparent manner adding that he holds these expectations from the Election Commission of Pakistan, the judiciary and all the state institutions. “Demanding so is our right,” he added. He said that the ‘selected’ prime minister has destroyed Pakistan. He observed that Pakistan has no respect and has been left penniless. “They have ruined the economy with the loans they have taken,” he added. He urged the people to take a stand against soaring inflation. “They said they would provide millions of jobs, and have instead deprived hundreds of thousands of employment,” he said. “Had it been our tenure, hundreds of thousands would have been granted jobs,” he added.

The PML-N president also criticised the rupee’s depreciation, saying that the dollar seems to have “sprouted wings”. “We must drown out this government with the tidal wave of the people,” he urged.

Speaking on the occasion, PML-N stalwart Khawaja Asif underlined the need for unity within party ranks. Addressing the gathering prior to Shehbaz, he said the people have gone tired of the growing inflation and poverty. He told the party workers to be ready as general elections can be called at any time. He urged the party workers to create unity within their ranks adding discord that exists, is not among workers rather it is among the leaders. The former defence minister said that there were no differences among the workers but the leadership at the provincial and district levels in the party. He said the workers must understand his talk in brief as he could not say all in detail. “And this discord must be put to rest. We must have unity if we wish to win the government mandate when comes the election time,” he stressed. He also called upon all party supporters, from Karachi to Peshawar, to stand behind party supremo Nawaz Sharif. He alleged the Gilgit and Azad Kashmir elections were rigged and said that the PML-N won the cantonment elections only because of transparency.