"Nawaz Sharif is attacked because he stands by an ideology which rejects any adulteration in the democratic process," the ousted premier's daughter and hand-picked successor, Maryam Safdar, told a gathering of PML-N's social media 'activists' in Lahore's Model Town on Tuesday.

"There can be no doctrine of necessity in the ideology of democracy," Maryam asserted as she expounded on her father's ideology.

She said that under her father's belief system, "two, three or five people cannot impose their decision on 200 million people."

"Nobody can minus the person that you plus," she said, claiming that her father had faced adversity only because he chose the 'right' thing to do over what was 'easy' following his disqualification.

She also heaped accolades on the role of PML-N's social media team, which she recalled had grown from four people in 2013 to several thousands across the country today.

The geographical spread of the PML-N's social media support was particularly highlighted.

"There is no match of the key role played by social media in taking Nawaz Sharif's message to every home," Maryam told the charged crowd.

She also publicly requested Nawaz to take strict action whenever the party's social media activists are threatened or attacked in the future.

The former premier's daughter also announced the launch of an official mobile application for Android and iOS, which will enable party members to connect with their elected representatives.

"Those who install the app will become members of the party," she said, highlighting the app's geo-tagging feature, which will allow its administrators to keep an eye on the location of PML-N supporters anywhere in the country.

'Shahbaz stood shoulder to shoulder with me'

Speaking after his daughter's address, Nawaz Sharif expressed his surprise over the large number of social media activists that had showed up to the convention.

"I thought there would be only a few hundred people present in the front rows. There is a crowd of thousands here," he said.

Thanking his brother, Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif, for standing "shoulder to shoulder" with him through all difficulties, Nawaz moved on to documenting his own 'achievements' over his truncated tenure.

He claimed that when he was last ousted in 1999, electricity generation had been in excess of demand and the country had been in position to export surplus energy to other countries, but then began to face up to 20 hours of load-shedding daily.

However, after the PML-N came in to power again in 2013, electricity generation again started exceeding demand, Nawaz claimed.

The ex-PM said the country's economic situation had worsened after the Panamagate verdict, using the dropping forex reserves and decrease in GDP as evidence of his claims.

He also mentioned infrastructural projects being completed under his government, wondering whether they would see completion next year after the election or not.

"Will there be a court in this country that holds [former president] Pervez Musharraf accountable for his crimes?" he asked, saying that the apex court had issued a decision against him in mere weeks, whereas a case against the former president had been pending before the courts for years.

"When Imran Khan accepts that they [the off-shore companies] are his assets, the judges say 'No son, these are not your assets'," he added as he turned his guns on his key rival.

"Thankfully they have not said that these are not yours [Imran Khan's] but Nawaz Sharif's assets," he jibed.

Highlighting what he sees as "double standards" in the apex court's decisions, Nawaz said that while the Supreme Court had limited investigations against Imran Khan to five years, Nawaz had been held accountable for assets accumulated over the past 50 years.

"I will not get them away like this," he said. "These two standards cannot go together."

"While I was thrown out on a salary I did not receive, the one dear to them was let off despite him accepting his crime," he alleged.

"Pakistan has been made into a country where some offshore companies are Halaal, while others are Haraam."

Shedding light on the 'movement for justice' he had announced earlier, Nawaz said: "We picked up the flag of the restoration of the judiciary before, and it is now time for us to to pick up the flag for the restoration of justice."

He also criticised the courts for legitimising the decisions of dictators in the past and judges for taking oaths on Provisional Constitutional Orders (PCO), promising that he would ensure it never happens in the future.

"Restoration of justice will not only be a part of our party manifesto but be the basic point of PML-N's election campaign," he said.

"You have to promise me that we will never allow the mandate to be disgraced again," he concluded.