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| 03 August 2004 | Tuesday | 16 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425 |
Door-to-door campaign for Shaukat Aziz
LAHORE, Aug 2: Prime Minister-designate Shaukat Aziz has expressed his resolve to make Pakistan a great military and economic power, capable of safeguarding the interests and rights of the Ummah.
He is also determined to strengthen the Ummah so that it could provide leadership to the civilized world. Mr Aziz gave the word in a letter his supporters will circulate in the constituency (NA-59, Attock III) during a door-to-door campaign for him.
The finance minister has decided to change his campaign mode for the constituency for security reasons. Now he will receive delegations in Islamabad of his supporters from the constituency and tell them what they should do to win hearts and minds of voters.
For the time being, no public meeting has been scheduled for the constituency. However, sources close to him say that the possibility of some election-related meetings could not be ruled out, although dates would be decided keeping in mind the security environment.
Mr Aziz's letter says that the election is providing him with an opportunity to serve the people. Fearing that he will not be able to meet everybody in the constituency, he is writing them a letter.
He said when he had taken over as finance minister some five years ago, the country did not have much resources because of which it was having to depend upon the IMF. Everybody was saying that Pakistan was a failed state. Overseas Pakistanis had withheld remittances.
Now, Mr Aziz said, the situation had changed a lot as the country had enough resources. Referring to politicians asking what the common man had got as a result of the increase in reserves, Mr Aziz said these leaders should let the nation know what they had done for them during their 10 years in power.
"You had made Pakistan bankrupt, depleted the exchequer", he said of his opponents. The letter said that the people had rejected the looters and were giving an opportunity to those who had saved the country.
"Pakistan is the only Islamic country which is a nuclear power. With economic prosperity it can be a ray of hope for the entire Ummah". Mr Aziz said the voters of his constituency should come out on Aug 18 (the polling day) to support him.
He said he was aware of the problems of the constituency, which would be solved as also the problems of the people.
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