HALA: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Tuesday pledged to develop Sindh at a par with his province if people of Sindh voted the PML-N to power in the next general election.

He was addressing PML-N workers’ convention in Bhanote village of Hala, the home town of Sindh PML-N president Shah Mohammad Shah.

“If Sindhis who live right from Hala to Punjab voted for the PML-N in 2018 election, I will develop Sindh like Punjab and Lahore,” he said.

Asks people to vote for PML-N, stop supporting Zardari

He also promised that he would take up the issue of prolonged loadshedding in Sindh with the federal government. He said he would make sure that Sindh should get electricity. “Sindh is my province first and Punjab comes later,” he said.

The PML-N president said it was his first visit to the interior of Sindh with a message from [ousted prime minister and his elder brother] Nawaz Sharif.

Zardari roundly criticised

He alleged that [Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairman and former head of state] Asif Zardari destroyed Sindh.

He alleged that PPP had looted Sindh and remarked that this land belonged to [great Sufi saint Shah Abdul Latif] Bhitai and not to the PPP or PTI.

He claimed that PPP leaders earned billions and siphoned off money to Dubai and now they were delivering bhashan (sermons) on corruption while wearing waistcoats.

He also claimed that after Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s government, it was only Benazir Bhutto’s regime that had done something for Sindh but the Asif Zardari-led PPP government committed atrocities with Sindh. “Asif Zardari raised fortunes while Sindh’s haris remained helpless. While peasants didn’t get subsidised fertiliser, Zardari amassed wealth. Interest-free loans were not given to farmers but Zardari got loans and looted Pakistan,” he alleged.

Shahbaz Sharif observed that Zardari did not launch any project like ‘Danish school’ nor did he create job opportunities for unemployed youth. “It is time for revenge now. I am Pakistani first and everything comes second,” he said.

Mr Sharif also promised more lands to be distributed to haris like Nawaz Sharif had done in the ’90s.

He pledged that he would make Sindh Pakistan’s prosperous province even at the cost of his own life. He took a pledge from people to give up following Asif Zardari and to hold him accountable.

He said that his [Punjab] government spent Rs100 billion on the laying of a road network in towns, villages and cities over the last five years. “It’s painful to see that no roads exist in Sindh and there are no quality health facilities with modern machinery either.

He said he would build a new hospital in each district of Sindh and ensure quality education to students free of cost.

Nawaz Sharif’s initiatives lauded

“Nawaz Sharif has done a lot of work for development of Pakistan; he set up power plants in the country and brought CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor) to Pakistan. Karachi’s peace was restored for which Rangers personnel sacrificed their lives,” he said.

Shah Mohammad Shah and his younger brother Shah Zaman Shah also spoke.

PPP holds rally against visit

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Hyderabad district chapter took out a protest rally from the district council to the local press club on Tuesday against the ongoing visit by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to Sindh, which they said had long been facing unbearable loadshedding and severe water shortage.

Led by PPP district leaders Saghir Qureshi, Ali Mohammad Sehto, Ehsan Abro and others, the protesters raised slogans against Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali over the situation.

The leaders alleged that the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) resorted to subjecting Sindh to 18 hours a day loadshedding at the behest of Abid Sher Ali. They said Shahbaz Sharif was visiting the province despite such a situation. The protesters burnt effigies of Prime Minister Abbasi and Minister Abid Sher Ali to vent their anger.