SARGODHA: Municipal Corporation Mayor Aslam Naveed is planning to hire a helicopter to shower flower petals on the rally of ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif at Kala Shah Kaku while the parliamentarians of Sargodha are also making arrangements to greet him there.

In a statement, Mr Naveed claimed to have arranged a helicopter for the purpose, announcing that a caravan of thousands of workers would proceed towards Kala Shah Kaku and Lahore at 9am today (Friday). He claimed he had set up a camp over there where every participant would get food and refreshments.

An insider of the PML-N told this scribe that the parliamentarians were critical of the PML-N ministers from Sargodha for not taking interest in campaigning for Nawaz’s rally.

On the other hand, the PTI leaders, including Mehr Ansar Haral and Barrister Hassan Dastgir, alleged the entire government machinery was being used for the participants in the rally and the government employees were being forced to attend it.

They blamed the Sargodha mayor for directing the staff of municipality, including sanitation workers, to join the rally or they would not be given their two-month pending salary. They predicted that not more than 200 people from the district would proceed to join the rally.

Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2017