ISLAMABAD, Nov 27: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has stopped its constant refrain for early elections and is now getting ready for the polls to be held early next year.

Sources in the party told Dawn that a 24-member committee headed by former PML-N secretary general Sartaj Aziz and comprising a number of senior party members and experts was hectically busy in preparing a draft of the election manifesto for its presentation before party president Nawaz Sharif who has convened the committee’s meeting in Lahore on Dec 1.

The sources said the party leadership wanted to launch its manifesto on Dec 30, the founding day of All India Muslim League which was formed in Dhaka in 1906.

“We have almost prepared a comprehensive draft of the manifesto,” said Siddiqul Farooque, who is the secretary of manifesto committee. He, however, said the draft would become final only after its approval by the party leadership and its thorough review by eight specially-constituted sub-committees headed by senior party members and experts.

“Changes can be made in the draft which the committee is nowadays preparing,” he added.

Refusing to divulge the details, Mr Farooque said at this point of time he could only say that the manifesto was being prepared keeping in view serious challenges the country had been facing due to eight-year misrule of former military dictator Gen Pervez Musharraf and continuation of his policies by the PPP-led coalition after the 2008 elections.

Mr Farooque said the PML-N did not want to give a “lollypop” to the nation through mere sloganeering and its manifesto would contain only the “achievable and realistic” targets.

“We do not want to set any unachievable targets in our manifesto because we know the difficulties which a government can face in implementing its programme since we have ruled the country twice,” he said.

When asked how this manifesto would be different from the previous one, he said this time the country was facing more serious challenges and, therefore, the manifesto was also being prepared with all seriousness.

Meanwhile, the sources said the PML-N had also received inputs from its future ally the PML-Likeminded group and some ideas were reportedly discussed at a meeting between the representatives of the two parties in Lahore two weeks ago.

The meeting was presided over by PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and it was attended by Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, party secretary-general Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, Sartaj Aziz, Ishaq Dar, Chaudhry Jafar Iqbal and others besides Humayun Akhtar from the Likeminded faction.