LAHORE: Former Minister of State for Information Mariyum Aurangzeb on Saturday said the PML-N was going to the polls with the slogan of “respect for vote and the elected government” and on the basis of its record service to the nation. The party will announce a list of its candidates in the next few days.

Talking to the media at an Iftar reception here at a local hotel, the PML-N information secretary lambasted the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) for, what she said was, ignoring its workers in awarding tickets for the elections and failure to honour its promises of serving the country and people.

“We have to struggle to find out those who worked for the PTI in the last five years in its list of candidates, which is full of financiers,” she added.

Senator Mushahid Hussain said the reception was held to introduce PML-N’s media team for the elections, and announced that the party would run an issue-based election campaign.

“Our narrative is popular among people and we are going to polls with our track record of huge projects of national importance that we completed,” he added.

Ms Aurangzeb said the PML-N would announce a merit-based list of its candidates; its central parliamentary board was selecting the candidates for the past two weeks only to pick the best. Majority of PTI’s candidates announced were turncoats and financiers, she added.

She said the PML-N governments in the Centre and Punjab had completed record development projects, fought terrorism in league with law enforcement agencies and completed a number of 11,000 megawatts power projects.

On the contrary, she claimed, the PTI did nothing. Those who raised the slogan of accountability in 90 days closed down the National Accountability Bureau offices in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and were involved in the metro bus scandal. Imran Khan had boasted of producing abundant power for the entire country but did not produce even a single unit for KP.

“We are going to the people with the development agenda of Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif,” she added.

Ms Aurangzeb asked the media to acknowledge the success story of the PML-N if they believed it was true. This would strengthen democracy, she said.

Replying to a question she said she could not name any PML-N woman candidate at the moment. The list was long and the party was selecting the best.

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2018