Pakistan to suffer if polls not held transparently, says Shahbaz

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) President Shahbaz Sharif has said Pakistan would suffer an irreparable damage if July-25 polls were not held in a free, fair and transparent manner.

While holding a meeting with a delegation of PML-N Lawyers Wing here at Model Town on Sunday, he said it would undermine all the progress that had been made in the past few years and the real essence of democracy and supremacy of ballot.

“Preventing rigging and promoting fair free and transparent polls is our goal, and the Lawyers Forum will play a key role in this regard,” he added. He said July-25 elections are a ‘do-or-die’ effort for the country people. He said the choice before the people is of proven performance and false promises, politics of dharnas and destabilisation.

He said the PML-N delivered on all counts, while Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) deceived people and destroyed Peshawar. It failure to build the Metro bus service is a testimony to the PTI performance, he added.

Under the leadership of PML-N quaid Nawaz Sharif, the party was able to rid the country of scourges of terrorism and load-shedding. Now is the time to make it an economic power through meaningful reforms, he added.

He lauded the role of lawyers in upholding the rule of law and supremacy of constitution, stating that they were the vanguard in the struggle for independence of judiciary, which formed a glorious chapter in the country's history.

The PML-N president asked the party's lawyers to form legal aid committees to help the party's candidates with legal advice as well as keep an eye on any attempts to rig the election. He said that the legal committees should spring into action when anyone tries to flout the law or interferes with the electoral process.

Shahbaz said that provision of level playing field to all parties is a must so that the people could make informed choices based on their understanding of who served them in office and who led them up the garden path. He said that the PML-N had prepared a very comprehensive manifesto that contains solutions to the multiple problems facing the country.

He said that the PML-N had prioritised water crisis, health and education as these issues were a matter of life and death for the nation. “If people give us a chance to serve them, we will make sure that the work begins on resolving the water crisis on the same day. “We will be expanding our interventions in health and education sector to the whole of Pakistan," he added.