FAISALABAD: The upcoming general elections will be a referendum for the nation to decide whether they support his struggle for justice and the sanctity of the vote, or the Supreme Court’s decision to disqualify him, said former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in an address to a large gathering in Jaranwala on Saturday.

Amid parody impersonations aimed at his political rivals and avowals of “Nawaz Sharif loves you from the core of his heart”, the former prime minister asked that if the masses had made him prime minister, how could five people [on the Supreme Court bench] expel him. He asked the large crowd gathered at the Jinnah Stadium to join hands with him to protect the sanctity of their vote, and ensure speedy, affordable and effective justice in the country. He said only then would his expulsion from government reach its logical end, and no one would be allowed to disrespect the ballot.

He said at the moment, anarchy was the order of the day in Pakistan. With skyrocketing prices and drone attacks, it was clear that the world did not have a favourable impression of Pakistan, he added. “I have done a lot for Pakistan during the four years I was prime minister...I ended power outages, terrorism and drone attacks,” he said.

Ex-PM derides Qadri for damaging politics of Imran, Zardari

The former PM said that certain elements had turned the full force of their power against him and continued to implicate him in cases, but they could never affect his ties with the people. Someone had recently filed an application to remove him as president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, he said, asking: “How they can revoke a law we have made?” Other than that, he said he had recently learned that a court bench was going to decide the length of the period that he would stay disqualified for.

“The masses will not accept the decision of my disqualification...they will reject it through their votes,” he said.

How could those who can’t handle themselves, serve the nation, he asked, adding that the masses would expel them from politics. The remark was pointed at Pakistan Awami Tehreek’s Tahirul Qadri who, the former prime minister claimed, had damaged the politics of “ladla” [a reference to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Imran Khan] and the leader from “Sindh” [Pakistan Peoples Party’s Asif Ali Zardari]. He added that their political situation will worsen during the elections.

Those raising the slogan for a new Pakistan had nothing for the masses in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he said, they kept themselves busy holding sit-ins and accusing others.

Promising a strengthened development agenda, the former prime minister said that all divisional headquarters — Faisalabad, Bahawalpur, Sargodha, Gujranwala and Sahiwal — would have mass transit systems and metro bus services. He also promised affordable housing projects.

Jaranwala would be declared a district, he said, promising that he would speak to his brother Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif in this regard. He was all praise for the Punjab CM’s work in providing education, health, and transport and roads to the masses.

Earlier, while addressing the crowd, the former prime minister’s daughter Maryam Nawaz alleged that the judges had asked Imran Khan to file a petition so that they could send Nawaz Sharif home as he [Khan] had failed to make that happen. The judges were silent on the Panama leaks issue which had nothing to do with corruption or Nawaz Sharif, she claimed.

She said not a single elected PM had been allowed to complete their term and no one had the courage to summon former dictator Pervez Musharraf.

“The people will have to teach those involved in conspiracies a sound lesson so that they cannot do that again in the future,” she said.

Earlier, around 10 PML-N workers were injured after the enclosure where the sound system was kept, came crashing to the ground because of overloading. There was no barrier around the stand and party workers scrambled to climb the set up hoping to catch a glimpse of the former PM.

As more than a dozen party workers climbed onto the set up, the stand came crashing down. This was followed by a short panic spell as party workers rushed to get away from the scene.

Those injured were taken to a hospital for treatment.

Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2018