MANSEHRA: Former prime minister Nawaz Sha­rif on Monday urged the people of Mansehra to vote for his PML-N so that he could overhaul the economy and put the country back on path to development.

Addressing an election gathering in the city, from where he is running for a National Assembly seat, Mr Sharif described himself as the “champion of dev­elopment and prosperity”.

“I am glad to stand among you for the first time since 2013, this decade-long separation is nothing less than an agony for me, and for you as well. However, my pleasure is eclipsed by sorrow when I see the enormous challenges this great country is facing on its economic and other important fronts,” said the PML-N supreme leader at the rally held at Thakra Stadium.

“If five judges of the apex court had not expelled me from the Prime Mini­ster’s Office, I could have made this country’s economy viable to absorb shocks,” he said, adding that the US dollar which he had left at Rs104 has gone out of control now.

The former prime minister listed the mega development projects launched by his government in Hazara and the rest of the country, saying the Hazara motorway was a big relief for the commuters as it allowed them to reach the federal capital in less than two hours.

“I am here today not to become prime minister. I am here to contest elections [from NA-15] and seek your vote,” he said, asking people to elect him to the National Assembly for the prosperity and development of the country and KP.

Without naming PTI founder Imran Khan, the former premier said the economy was shattered when a ‘liar fraudulently’ assumed the Prime Minister’s Office.

“I was in jail and then in London when this country was being plundered… [had I stayed in power], I would have completed the Lahore-Karachi motorway which is stalled in Sukkur,” he said.

He also sought people’s support in overhauling the economy so that he could put the country on the path of development.

Nawaz Sharif said he would link the Hazara Motorway to Gilgit-Baltistan via Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad road if elected to power.

“If I came into power no youngster would be unemployed, and poor segments of the society would receive electricity, natural gas, and even vegetables at subsidised rates,” Mr Sharif claimed.

He claimed that he had refused to form a coalition government in KP in the 2013 elections after JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman approached him with an offer to form a joint government in the province. He said he gave the PTI a chance to form the government instead and added that PTI ruined the economy during its 10 years in power.

Maryam Nawaz also addressed the gathering saying she was glad to experience that despite the “shivering cold a huge crowd showed up here to welcome Nawaz Sharif”.

Ms Nawaz said PTI failed to launch any mega development projects during its ten-year tenure in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. PML-N leaders Sardar Mohammad Yusuf, Amir Muqam and Mohammad Safdar, were also in attendance.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2024