GUJRAT: PML-N’s chief organiser Maryam Nawaz Sharif has asked party officials to adopt an aggressive political approach to promote the party’s narrative against the rival PTI if they want to win the upcoming elections.

As part of her party’s organisational visits across Punjab, Ms Sharif spent a second consecutive day in Gujranwala, where she chaired a meeting of party’s lawmakers, former ticket holders, district presidents and general secretaries from all seven districts of Gujranwala and Gujrat divisions on Saturday.

Senior party leaders, including federal ministers Khawaja Muham­mad Asif, Rana Sanaullah, Khur­ram Dastgir Khan, and prime minister’s special aide Attaullah Tarar, were also present on the occasion.

Some participants of the meeting quoted Ms Sharif as directing party organisations to promote youth and women by assigning offices to them. She said distributing party offices only to the close kin or favourites of the local leaders and lawmakers could never strengthen the party.

Ms Sharif, the party’s vice president, also showed her dismay over complaints of interference in other constituencies by several party members and said there would be zero tolerance on the complaints of discrimination that had damaged the party position in various constituencies, the attendees said.

Insists local leaders must not promote relatives, favourites

She said there was no room for a cowardly approach in politics, and only a bold stance could bring positive results for the party.

Stressing the need for promoting the party’s narrative through social media, she believed that “false and baseless propaganda by the PTI leadership” should be countered by spreading PMLN’s “truth-based narrative”.

Other participants who expressed their views in the meeting agreed that the return of PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif before the elections was necessary to brighten the party’s chances to win the polls since Punjab was its base in national politics. They commended Ms Sharif for her efforts in creating momentum for the party.

Sources said it was decided in the meeting that active supporters and workers of the party would be accommodated in different offices and notifications would be issued for their appointments to give them a sense of ownership.

According to the media cell of Maryam Nawaz Sharif, she expressed her satisfaction with the strategy of holding workers’ conventions in Punjab that had motivated the workers.

It was not the first time that the country had been handed over to the PML-N in critical economic conditions, she said, insisting that whenever such a situation evolved, “Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif come forward to steer the country out of the crisis”.

She said “conspirators were again hatching conspiracies” that the economy could not be handled this time, and resolved that despite these difficulties, the PML-N was determined to overcome economic problems, as it did earlier by overcoming the energy crisis.

Published in Dawn, March 5th, 2023