My innocence has been proven, Nawaz tells voters

PML-N leader says judges who convicted him left office one by one

Shehbaz vows to transform south Punjab region into mini-Lahore.

LAHORE/ RAJANPUR   - Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) Quaid Muhammad Nawaz Sharif said on Monday that he had always made sincere efforts for welfare of the people of the country and would continue this mission with high spirit.

He stated this while addressing party workers during an election rally in Lahore. Nawaz Sharif said that when he was in power petrol, ghee and flour were available at affordable prices, adding that there was a dire need to bring back that time.

He said that it was his party’s agenda to ensure the respect of green flag and green passport globally.

If Nawaz Sharif had not been ousted then people would have not been facing unemployment, he added. He said, “Today he has come to his constituency and collective efforts will be made to ensure development in the country.”

Also Nawaz Sharif raised questions over Justice (retd) Ijazul Ahsan’s untimely resignation, saying that “a guilty conscience needs no accuser”. Supreme Court’s third senior-most judged Ahsan who was in line to become the chief justice after the retire­ment of incumbent CJP Qazi Faez Isa, resigned on January 11. Ah­san’s resignation, in which he mentioned that he just did not wish to continue as the top court’s judge, came within a day of Justice (retd) Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi’s resignation — who was under a microscope for numerous allegations. “I was innocent. The judge who was appointed to monitor my cases [...] and was about to become the chief justice in eight months resigned be­cause a guilty conscience needs no accuser,” he said during a ral­ly in Lahore’s NA-130 constituency, where he will contest the upcoming polls after a lifetime ban on him from holding a pub­lic office was lifted. Ahsan was appointed by then-CJP Saqib Nis­ar in 2017 to oversee the proceedings of the references that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has been directed to file against Nawaz Sharif and his family members. 

As he has secured acquittals in the corruption cases against him, within months of him coming back to Pakistan after end­ing a four-year self-exile in London, Nawaz said: “My innocence has been proven, but the judges who convicted me have left of­fice one by one.”

Rallying supporters to ensure that they vote for the PML-N in the February 8 elections, Nawaz vowed that he would “leave no stone unturned” to ensure that Pakistan progresses.

“There was peace when Nawaz Sharif was in power. There was no inflation, petrol was cheap. I want to bring that era back and want to see that peace once more in your homes,” the PML-N su­premo said, who is eyeing a fourth stint as the prime minister.

The competition at the national level is seemingly between the PML-N and its former ally Pakistan Peoples Party, following Pa­kistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s electoral symbol “bat” being stripped of. PML-N Chief Organiser Maryam Nawaz said that people were well aware of everything as nothing was hidden from them. She said that each and every vote was vital for uplift of the country, adding that people must exercise their right to vote on February 8. Meanwhile, PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif unveiling plan on Monday about South Punjab vowed to transform the region into ‘mini-Lahore’.

Addressing a public gathering in Rajanpur, the former pre­mier asked the masses to support the PML-N in the upcoming elections on February 8, and pledged to bring prosperity to the region and secure a fourth term as prime minister.

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