GUJRAT: The local chapter of the ruling PML-N has started preparations to accord a warm welcome to party chief Nawaz Sharif on his way back to Lahore from Islamabad via GT Road on Wednesday.

In this connection, senior PML-N leaders paid visits to the districts along GT Road to mobilise local party cadres to bring huge crowds for their leader’s reception.

The ruling party is also using the state machinery to make the show lead by the ousted prime minister a success.

According to an administrative official, who sought anonymity, the heads of the administrations in these GT Road districts have been directed to utilise government resources “carefully” to facilitate Nawaz’s rally to avoid media criticisim in this regard.

In this connection, railways minister Khwaja Saad Rafique, Punjab PML-N secretary general and provincial minister Raja Ishfaq Sarwar and other party leaders visited Gujrat and Gujranwala districts.

Raja Ishafaq also led a party delegation that visited Jhelum district on Monday where these leaders spoke to the elected representatives of the local bodies as well as party officials of the district and city, giving them directions to make the rally’s reception a success.

The administrations of the districts concerned also held meetings to chalk out a strategy for making security arrangements for the rally and discuss related matters.

A meeting of deputy commissioners of Gujranwala division was held at the Gujranwala Commissioner’s office, where sources said, a plan was devised for Aug 9 as per the directions from the provincial government.

Official sources told Dawn that a video-link meeting of the party lawmakers belonging to three divisions — Lahore, Rawalpindi and Gujranwala — would be held under MNA Hamza Shahbaz on Tuesday (today). The party lawmakers belonging to these divisions will participate in the meeting through video link from the offices of the deputy commissioner’s concerned.

Meanwhile, the Gujrat Municipal Corporation and the provincial government’s departments concerned have started cleaning the main GT Road where patch work on the dilapidated portions of the highway is also being done.

Similar preparations are being made by the municipalities of Kharian, Sara-i-Alamgir, Jhelum, Dina, Sohawa, Wazirabad and other towns located along the GT Road.

SAAD: Railways Minister Khwaja Saad Rafique has claimed that “negative role” played by Chaudhary Pervaiz Elahi was a major hurdle in inclusion of a group of PML-Q led by Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain in the PML-N.

He alleged that Pervaiz Elahi was sowing hatred everywhere, and was not letting various factions of the Muslim League united. However, he claimed, PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat had been in favour of such unification.

Speaking to PML-N local bodies representatives and party officials from across the district at Gujrat district council’s rest house here on Monday, the minister said the state institutions should discharge their duties while remaining within the limits of the Constitution and let the democratic institutions and elected governments complete their term.

He said no institution had been hatching any conspiracy against any other institution and advised the PTI chief Imran Khan to refrain from sowing the seeds of hatred among the people of Pakistan.

The minister said the “strategy” of not allowing elected governments to work had harmed the country, neighbouring China, India and Iran had made tremendous progress through continuity of the system. He said the PML-N chief had saved Pakistan by not letting the country indulge in conflicts like Yemen and Qatar and sacrificed his “personal friendships” to protect the national interest.

PML-N lawmakers including Abid Raza Kotla, Tariq Dinga, Imran Zafar, Nawabzada Haider Mehdi, Ashraf Deona, Shabeer Kotla, Haji Javed Akhtar, district council chairman Tanveer Kotla, Municipal Corporation mayor Haji Nasir Mehmood were present.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2017