PESHAWAR, July 9: Former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif has asked the PML-N central leadership in the country to delegate powers to district office-bearers so that they could choose suitable candidates for the forthcoming local bodies polls. Pakistan, he said, was passing through a critical juncture as he asked party workers to help hapless people and enable them to wage a struggle against undemocratic forces.

“There is a need to delegate authority to the district level party’s office-bearers for the selection of the candidates. For this purpose, special committees should be formed who could decide the about the candidature of the party’s nominees for the next local bodies polls,” said Mian Nawaz Sharif in a telephonic address to the newly-elected provincial and district level office-bearers at PML-N provincial party office here on Saturday.

He told the party’s provincial leadership to focus on the election and urged them to ensure the victory of party candidates.

Mr Sharif reiterated that the PML-N had a principled stand that no alliance would be made with the PML-Q and its allied parties.

About the country’s political situation, he underlined the uncontrolled price hike, law and order, unemployment and told the Leaguers to cash in on the situation and help out all those facing injustices and other problems.

He criticized President General Pervez Musharraf and said his seven-point agenda of good governance was a failure. Those who were wanted by the NAB in a number of corruption charges had been made ministers and they had re-started looting the public exchequer without any fear, he added.

“Many influential people, without any fear of the NAB or other watchdog department, have been indulging in illegal allotments of plots, while on the other side, the number of shelter-less people is increasing with each passing day,” he maintained. First, the genuine problems of the masses should be identified and later the public should be briefed on fighting for their basic rights, he maintained.

During his telephonic address, Nawaz Sharif repeatedly lauded the party workers for remaining steadfast in a critical situation and never bowing down to dictatorial elements.

Those who followed the principled stance of the PML-N against the military regime had made a new history of democracy, and one day their efforts would bear fruit, he said amid slogans favouring the leader and opposing the government.