Photo courtesy PMLN
Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) Senior Vice President Maryam Nawaz on Thursday described the return of her father, and former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif as the “new dawn” for a Pakistan shrouded in the darkness of crises.
Speaking to former lawmakers and ticketholders of the PMLN in Lahore, she claimed Nawaz would play a “historic” role in ending the country’s turmoil. “Nawaz Sharif is not coming for his own relief but to save the nation from the sufferings of inflation, economic depression and lawlessness,” she said, emphasizing that the country needed an agenda focused on economic development and relief for the impoverished rather than revenge. “The country needs unity and peace, not [politics of] vengeance,” she stressed.
Calling on the public to give a two-thirds mandate to Nawaz to enable him to end economic depression, inflation and unemployment, she recalled that her father served as prime minister thrice before. “Nawaz Sharif fulfilled every promise he made to the people and always lived up to the trust of people and every time brought the country out of the worst crises,” she said, adding his priority remained development and prosperity of the people and the country. She said history was witness to Nawaz Sharif returning to Pakistan at its lowest points and providing relief to the public through hard work and sincerity.
Referring to the last government led by Nawaz in 2013, Maryam recalled hours of loadshedding, terrorism and economic miseries. It was Nawaz, she claimed, who had united the entire nation against terrorism; brought down inflation; and boosted economic growth to 6.1 percent.
Warning against the propaganda of “tricksters, fraudsters, liars and thieves,” she maintained that people should decide who would serve them through the power of their vote. “Oct. 21 will become a bright chapter in the political and democratic history of Pakistan,” she said, referring to Nawaz’s planned return date. “The country has to be made a cradle of development,” she said. “We all have to work with historical spirit to receive our leader,” she added.
The participants of the meeting pledged to give a historic welcome to the former prime minister, through it remains unclear if the party would be able to meet its target of a gathering of over 200,000 people at the Lahore airport to receive him.