MUZAFFARBABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) vice president Maryam Nawaz on Saturday claimed that while Nawaz Sharif was synonyms with development, Imran Khan was synonyms with devastation.

Speaking at an election rally in Sharda in the upper belt of Neelum valley from where Legislative Assembly speaker Shah Ghulam Qadir is contesting on behalf of the PML-N, she called upon the Kashmiris to push back Mr Khan from Kohala.

She said after losing the Kashmir case before [the then] US President Donald Trump, Mr Khan had claimed that he felt like winning the [cricket] world cup again.

“Much later, Pakistani nation came to know that it was the world cup of losing the case of Kashmir.”

She said Nawaz Sharif could be the leader of the Kashmiris because as prime minister he would receive his Indian counterparts in Pakistan.

“Kashmir issue will see settlement only under the leadership of Nawaz Sharif because Imran Khan does not command respect both at home and abroad and no one gives any importance to him,” she said.She asked the PML-N activists to pull out their sympathisers from homes on July 25 and stamp on the tiger symbol.

She repeatedly expressed fears that results could be manipulated and asked the party workers to protect their votes.

Asking workers to hold anyone trying to rig elections from collars, she said if brave Kashmiris could sustain bullets in their chest for freedom, they could also protect their votes.

She promised that if the PML-N formed the government, it would establish a university in Sharda.

Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2021