Nawaz Sharif seeks heavy mandate from the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

MANSEHRA, Jan 22 (SABAH): Former three-time prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif sought heavy mandate from the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as his daughter Maryam Nawaz Sharif said that the province isn’t a laboratory.

Nawaz Sharif was addressing a public rally in KP on Monday as the country is heading towards general elections scheduled for Feb 8.

Addressing a mammoth crowd at Mansehra’s Thakra Stadium, the PML-N supremo said that those who ruled KP during last 10 years have destroyed the province. It merits mention here that former prime minister is also the candidate from the constituency of NA-15 Mansehra.

“I am not here to become prime minister. I am contesting the election from here. Will you vote for me,” Nawaz Sharif asked the massive crowd. “Nawaz Sharif is here with you after 10 years. The previous rulers of this province literally destroyed it,” he said.

“Did they make a new KP or new Pakistan,” he asked the crowd amid huge roar.

According to Nawaz Sharif, he gave employment, cheap gas and electricity units during his tenure as the prime minister. The dollar was in control and rupee was in much strength during our stint in power, he added. “I left a prosperous Pakistan but now I am really sad over the prevailing situation of the country,” he said.

He added that it would not be an easy task to rebuild Pakistan as it would require a combine effort.

Criticising former prime minister Imran Khan, Nawaz Sharif said, “What do the people of K-P say? Did the province progress? Has ‘Naya Pakistan’ been made?” He revealed that in 2013 general elections, he had denied head of Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam (JUI-F) Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s request to form a coalition government with him out of respect for the PTI’s number of seats. The PML-N supremo asked the crowd what changes did the party bring in K-P after ruling the province for a decade.

“You people of K-P fell in the trap of this deceiver toto? You voted his government in. Even though I was the prime minister, but the chief minister was someone else. Did [they] bring about any change in K-P?” asked Nawaz.

He further said that the PLM-N would have again formed government in 2018 had he not been ousted before the completion of his five-year tenure. “Mansehra should have become the best city of K-P,” Nawaz said.

“If the five judges had not removed me from power, there would have been an airport in this city. The previous government did not even build the motorway beyond Sukkur. Respectable transport is the right of the people. We will build a college, medical college and university here. Mansehra’s water issue will be resolved by routing supply from Shogran,” he added.”People of K-P will be provided gas, vegetables, petrol at cheaper rates, along with employment in province,” he added.

According to Nawaz Sharif, PML-N will run a train from Karachi to Mansehra and then from Mansehra to Muzaffarabad. He also promised to build an airport for the people of Mansehra.

“Hazara and Mansehra really love Nawaz Sharif and they have rightly proved it today,” said PML-N Chief Organiser Maryam Nawaz Sharif in her address. “KP isn’t a laboratory where you come and do experiments,” Maryam said in an apparent reference towards previous governments of PTI in the province.

“Where are billion trees, employment and five million houses? Your all promises were fake,” she said. She said that Mansehra has given its verdict today instead of waiting for Feb 8 polling day.