LAHORE: As the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf has completed 100 days of its campaign revolving around the catch-phrase ‘Go Nawaz go’, the PML-Q has entered the fray by holding public rallies shouting ‘Go Shahbaz go’ slogan.

To begin with, the PML-Q envisages rallies in all 36 districts of Punjab in the first phase of its campaign to reach out to the masses. It will especially target the “poor performance” of ruling PML-N government under chief minister Shabaz Sharif in comparison to Pervaiz Elahi’s 2002-07 rule.

After Bahawalpur’s big rally, the PML-Q feels upbeat and hopes for even better shows in other districts.

The PML-Q leadership believes it is high time to re-organise and restructure the party and mobilise its workers to dispel the impression that it needs support of any other party like Imran Khan’s PTI or Dr Tahirul Qadri’s Pakistan Awami Tahreek (PAT) to do politics. The party of the Chaudhrys of Gujrat is keen to establish its own independent identity, exploiting its ‘potential’ in the rural Punjab where it delivered most during its tenure.

“We have got tremendous response from the people of Bahawalpur, which showed they remember the good work our government carried out in Punjab during 2002-07. We have started our campaign to mobilise our workers and reaching out to the masses in Punjab in the first phase,” PML-Q senior leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi told Dawn here on Sunday.

Mr Elahi said the people of Punjab were not happy with the performance of Punjab government. “Go Shahbaz go will now become a popular slogan in Punjab as he (CM) has miserably failed to deliver. The slogan will be echoing in our rallies and it will haunt Shahbaz wherever he will go. The people now are comparing Shabaz’s 10 years in power with mine five, finding a huge difference in terms of delivering,” he said, adding the reason of Shahbaz’s failure was that he was more keen to strengthen his government through bureaucracy and police, instead of considering the people real source of power.

The former deputy prime minister claimed his party would make a comeback in the next elections. To a question whether there was any chance of mid-term polls, Pervaiz Elahi said: “The PML-N government has been formed as a result of massive rigging in 2013 elections. The sit-ins have further weakened the government. Now it will be interesting to see for how long this weak government survives.”

Mr Elahi said almost all opposition parties were holding public rallies sensing an early election. “The Punjab government is reluctant to hold local body polls because it knows people will reject the PML-N for its bad performance and false promises,” he added.

Pervaiz Elahi has also challenged Shahbaz Sharif to have a live TV debate with him on comparative performances of the two parties in health, education, agriculture and other sectors of the province.The PML-N has been in power in Punjab twice, while the Q has got only one such chance so far.

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2014