MANSEHRA: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s central vice-president Sardar Mohammad Yusuf on Sunday said his party had incorporated the creation of Hazara province in its election manifesto.

“The PML-N is of the view that more federating units are need of the hour, and party supremo Nawaz Sharif is going to announce this during a public gathering here,” he said while speaking to the media in Thakra stadium, where the PML-N will hold its power show on Monday (today).

Mr Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz would address the gathering.

Flanked by Captain retired Mohammad Safdar, the son-in-law of Nawaz Sharif, Mr Yusuf said Mr Sharif would launch his party’s election campaign formally in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from the Monday’s gathering.

Sardar Yusuf says Nawaz to begin party’s poll campaign from today’s Mansehra gathering

“We have been expecting a historic influx of people to this event as they want to welcome their leader here,” he said.

Mr Yusuf, a former federal minister of religious affairs, said PML-N leader had executed the Hazara Motorway and other mega development projects in the region.

“Mr Sharif besides announcing the creation of Hazara province would also unveil the PML-N’s strategy on how to retrieve this country out of the current economic challenges, and put it on the path of prosperity and development,” he said.

The PML-N leader said the Hazara province resolutions moved by his party’s lawmakers in the Senate and National Assembly were still pending. Mr Sharif would also discuss that issue in detail, he added.

“Former premier Shehbaz Sharif had approved a medical college and gravity water supply scheme at a cost of Rs18 billion and execution of these two projects would begin shortly,” Mr Yusuf claimed.

Earlier, Mr Yusuf and Mr Safdar visited the venue and reviewed the preparations for the public gathering.

JI GATHERING: Jamaat-i-Islami’s contender for NA-14 Dr Tariq Sheerazi on Sunday insisted his party would win national and provincial assembly seats in the Mansehra district.

“People are fed up with parties who have ruled this country for decades, and plunged economy into a mess through corruption and favouritism,” he said while speaking at a public gathering here.

JI aspirant for PK-37 Jamil Ahmad Jehangiri also spoke.

Dr Sheerazi claimed Jamaat would ensure an interest-free economy once it came to power.

He claimed the JI was the first to provide tents and temporary shelters to families survived in the 2005 devastating earthquake, and then built homes for them.

On the occasion, Jamil Jehangiri said if people voted his party to power they would provide shelters to homeless people.

Published in Dawn, January 22nd, 2024