GUJRAT: PML (People's Movement for Liberation). Nawaz Sharif, the party's supreme leader, and the former prime minister has taken great objection to his party's loss in the cantonment boards elections in Gujranwala division and has ordered the party's president, Shehbaz Sharif, to launch an investigation into the matter.
He was addressing party leaders, legislators, and previous ticket holders from the Gujranwala division at a party workers' convention held in Islamabad on Monday at the farmhouse of MNA Tariq Fazal Chaudhry. He was speaking to members of the Gujranwala division.
Initially scheduled to take place in Lahore's Model Town, party officials claimed the convention for the Gujranwala area was moved late on Sunday night because party leader Shehbaz Sharif needed to go to Islamabad in time to attend the parliament's session the following day.
The PML-N suffered a humiliating loss in two out of three cantonment boards of Gujranwala division — Gujranwala and Kharian Cantt — where the party was able to win just two out of ten wards, and in both wards of Kharian Cantt where the party was victorious in both wards.
In order to ensure openness in the next general election,
“I have always considered Gujranwala to be my home town, in the same way, that Lahore is my home town, and I am curious as to why the party lost the cantonment board elections in the area. The prime minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, was reported as stating in his speech to the convention attendees, "I need a comprehensive report from Shehbaz Sharif on who chose the candidates and what the causes were for the party's candidates' loss in the area."
His remarks, while emphasizing the importance of strengthening the party's organizational structure at the union council level, also questioned why the PML-N, despite receiving millions of votes, was not organized at the grassroots level, when other parties with only a few seats in the parliament and small vote banks were (at the UC level).
He stated that it was past time for the party to organize at the grassroots level in preparation for the upcoming general elections, which he demanded to be held in a free, fair, and transparent manner, and that whoever won the trust of the people of Pakistan should be given the authority to form the next government, according to the statement by Khan.
The prime minister said those who would say before coming into power that if the rupee depreciated against the dollar, the rate of electricity and petroleum products increased, then the prime minister must have been corrupt, and those who talked about preferring suicide to go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), had not yet committed suicide. He was alluding to Imran Khan's speeches before becoming prime minister.
It was lamented by him that the wrong policies of the current rulers had brought utter disgrace upon the green passport and resulted in skyrocketing prices for flour, sugar, and medicine; however, he claimed that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had only been pursuing the PML-N leaders in the name of transparency.
Vice President Maryam Nawaz and Leader of the Opposition in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz participated in the convention virtually from Lahore, whereas party president Shehbaz Sharif, party secretary-general Ahsan Iqbal, Punjab president Rana Sanaullah, Khurram Dastgir Khan, Khwaja Asif, and Ameer Muqam were in attendance at the convention.
In an unusual move, none of the officials from the party's Gujranwala area, including district presidents and general secretaries, as well as legislators and ticket holders, among others, were permitted to speak at the convention, which was only addressed by the party's top leadership.
Dawn heard from several attendees who said they felt that at the very least one or two representatives from the party's district chapters should have been invited to express their perspectives on local issues with the party's top leadership.
According to a party official from the Mandi Bahauddin area, the party could not be strengthened at the grassroots level until the local authorities were given the opportunity to speak.
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