PM’s countrywide tour to counter PTI onslaught

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s programme to tour all provinces to address public rallies and inaugurate massive development projects is aimed at dampening the impact of the onslaught that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan plans to launch on the pretext of faulty Terms of Reference (ToRs) for the judicial commission on offshore companies.

The premier will be busy with his programme in the coming few weeks. During his tour, he will also promote his development agenda and emphasise that hurdles are being created by the PTI in its implementation.

As per his schedule, Nawaz Sharif would kick-start his campaign trail from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) to be followed by his visits to Sindh and Balochistan. Punjab will be his last stop.

If his previous two stints as prime minister are any guide, he used to frequently address public rallies and meetings in different parts of Pakistan. This time, he was somewhat circumspect and withdrawn in this connection as he has been busy with finalising mega projects under the game-changer China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) for speedy completion and other major development schemes.

Whenever his detractors had been engaged in public campaigns against him in the past, Nawaz Sharif had been responding to them in the same coin to ensure that there was no nibbling at his vote-bank. The present schedule has the same objective to achieve.     

His focus during his third tenure as prime minister has been on doing away with the electricity shortage by the end of 2017 to get rid of the agonising prolonged power outages that have been hitting the ordinary people and industry very hard, frustrating the public at large.

A former politically appointed ambassador, who is associated with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), lives abroad and is lethally opposed to Nawaz Sharif, has told a visitor abroad that if no impediment was created in the prime minister’s way, he would overcome his opponents in the next elections hands down. He was skeptical of the performance of his own party.

During his campaign, the premier will specifically highlight the PTI ‘conspiracies’, intended to derail the fast development projects for petty political gains. The focus of his attack will be on Imran Khan, who relentlessly keeps provoking him.

Even during his last address to the nation in which he announced writing of a letter to the chief justice of Pakistan for formation of the judicial commission to look into the offshore companies, Nawaz Sharif harshly berated the PTI chairman only, and did not say a word about any other political force including the PPP.

Although some PPP leaders especially from Punjab are strongly haranguing the prime minister without realizing that it is the PTI and not the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) that has snatched their electoral power particularly in the majority province, Nawaz Sharif simply ignored their denunciation.

His spokesmen also generally don’t react to the attacks of these PPP leaders as per the PML-N policy. However, for the first time Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid took on Aitzaz Ahsan only, who has been in the forefront in scandalising the ToRs.