LAHORE: Political arch-rivals PTI and PML-N made a last-ditch effort on Friday to woo voters in Punjab ahead of Sunday’s high-stakes by-elections, with PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz offering a message of “love, peace and unity” to the country’s youth, including Pakist­­an Tehreek-i-Insaf supporters.

“I don’t want a fight (with the PTI). I want Pakistan to progress,” Ms Nawaz told a rally of the party-backed candidate — PTI dissident Sal­man Naeem — in Multan. “I am taking this initiative only for Pakistan. And I also ask [PTI chairman] Imran Khan to let the country progress.”

However, she warned the former prime minister and his party that her “offer of peace” should not be taken as her or PML-N’s weakness and that she knew “how to give a tit-for-tat response”.

The by-elections on 20 seats of the Punjab Assembly — which Mr Khan has characterised as a battle for “good versus evil” — are due on Sunday. The seats are among the 25 vacated (including five reserved) by the Election Com­­mission of Pakistan (ECP) over defection after PTI dissident lawmakers who voted for Ha­­mza Shehbaz in the Punjab chief minister’s election.

Maryam says Imran forgot he committed pre-poll rigging during own tenure

The stakes are high because the outcome of the elections will determine who will become chief minister in Punjab, the re-election for which will be held on July 22.

Both parties have been claiming that their victory is assured.

While Ms Nawaz exten­ded a hand of friendship to PTI supporters during her Multan address, she continued to pillory Imran Khan, his wife, Bushra Bibi, and her friend Farah Khan for their alleged corruption, political victimisation of PML-N leaders and ruining the country.

She said PTI supporters should not waste their votes and instead back PML-N’s candidates for the progress of Punjab. She was also critical of the PTI-PML-Q joint candidate Parvez Elahi.

Maryam Nawaz said Imran Khan was criticising the ECP earlier in the day for “pre-poll rigging” but he forgot that how he himself committed rigging during his tenure.

She also targeted the ECP for allegedly making the Re­­­sults Transmission Sys­tem (RTS) ineffective in 2018 and the NAB for presenting one excuse or an­­ot­her to delay her court appe­als against her conviction in a corruption reference.

‘Lions to bring prosperity’

Earlier, at a workers’ convention in Lahore, Ms Nawaz said the by-elections were not a war between PML-N and PTI, but they were a “battle for the development of Lahore”.

She said that in the last four years, the PTI had turned the city into a “dungeon” and it “was left to fend for itself”.

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2022