MANSEHRA: Deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif Sunday said that he will amend the laws to annul his disqualification verdict once he is elected back to power after the upcoming general elections.
“This law, this decision [to disqualify me] would have to be taken to the assembly and changed,” Nawaz told a gathering in Mansehra. “For that, I will need your vote,” he added.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo said his party’s ‘respect the vote’ campaign demands respect for the people of Pakistan. “Our call to respect the vote demands respect for the people of Pakistan. This country does not belong to a few people; it belongs to the nation of 220 million people,” he said, adding that the citizens of this country are not slaves.
“You are Pakistanis just like those five judges and no one can disrespect your decision,” Nawaz boasted, adding, “You will not bow down and neither will I.” He claimed that everyone wanted to put him behind bars because the people of Pakistan love him. He said that though he was disqualified for holding an iqama, Imran was not even held accountable for owning offshore companies.
Nawaz stressed that he was in no competition with either Imran Khan or Asif Ali Zardari and that he defeated both of them during the 2013 elections and will do so again in 2018.
Reminding the audience that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), which raised slogans for a new Pakistan, had done nothing for the province. “I have seen new Pakistan from Islamabad to Burhan and Burhan to Shah Maqsood. But from Shah Maqsood to Havelian, Abbottabad, and Mansehra, I have seen the old Pakistan. They used to say that we will make a new Pakistan. I saw right and left and in the front, I could not see a new Pakistan,” Nawaz remarked, promising that a six-lane motorway would be extended until Mansehra by next year.
“Go to Punjab and have a look at Lahore. You will see a new Pakistan, but as you enter KP, or on the other side in Sindh, you will see the picture of the same old Pakistan. No development, no happiness can be seen there.
Had Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) been with Shahbaz Sharif, the entire picture of the province would have different,” he said. “If vote is respected in 2018 [elections], then we will create a ‘naya [new] Pakistan’ in the old and dilapidated KP,” he added.
Nawaz said that thanks to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Mansehra is about to become the centre of local and foreign investment.
Congratulating Federal Minister of Religious Affairs Sardar Yousaf “for making the Hajis happy” he alleged, “There were ministers in the PPP era who looted Hajis but there is no case against them.”
He said that despite his wish of returning to the area during election campaign, he was not sure whether he would be able to come. “You know that they are after me. They want to arrest Nawaz Sharif and put him in jail because you love me. They hate the person who is loved by people. But I am sure that the nation’s love will succeed and those conspiring against Pakistan will fail.”
Nawaz further stated that he had fulfilled the promises of ending load shedding and rooting out terrorism, and said that if given a chance again, he would ensure housing for all and introduce judicial reforms to ensure the provision of justice to poor within weeks. “For 70 years, this circus has been going on in the country. No prime minister has been allowed to complete their tenure. I want to take a promise from you that the next 70 years will not be of disrespect but of respect for us. Will you act on what I say, [irrespective of] from wherever I say it? If yes, then we will sail through. Otherwise we will continue to be disrespected like this,” he concluded.
Meanwhile, in an apparent reference to bits of her father’s speech being censored by media, Maryam Nawaz – who skipped the Mansehra rally- tweeted, “There is complete freedom in our country to tell lies but speaking truth and presenting facts is not tolerated.”
Published in Daily Times, May 7th 2018.
