Service to people, not sit-ins, brings success: Nawaz

MUZAFFARABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said that success comes by doing something, not by staging sit-ins, as service to the people pays dividends.

Castigating the calls made by certain political leaders for agitation in Pakistan, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said that the scale of the agitator’s adventure would commensurate with the vote and seats it had bagged in the Azad Kashmir polls.

The prime minister was here on a brief trip for making the victory speech and giving  thanks after elections in Azad Kashmir.

Addressing a mammoth public meeting at the University Ground on Friday afternoon, he appeared in the public for the first time after more than two months and was received by the people with enthusiasm who chanted slogans in his favour.

He vowed to bring about a revolution of development in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) where the PML-N would form the government next week as it gained 32 seats in the house of 41. The prime minister thanked the AJK people for supporting the party by rejecting what he termed the culture of negative politics.

He said that the AJK people defeated the mainstream leaders of the opposition parties referring to the defeat of PTI Barrister Sultan by his party’s Chaudhry Saeed. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif also laughed off the much-hyped mass movement announced by the PTI against his government saying one could guess as what would be the scale of that movement. “They will launch the movement only to the size of what they got in Azad Kashmir general election — just two seats and the PML-N got 32,” the prime minister said. He assured the charged gathering that the next five years would be exemplary for the development of Azad Kashmir.

The PML-N government would develop a network of motorways and highways besides spending a huge amount on education and health sectors, he said and appreciated his team for successful electioneering in Azad Kashmir including Senator Pervaiz Rashid, Dr Syed Asif Saeed Kirmani, Barjis Tahir, Raja Farooq Haider and local party leaders though he himself was unable to take part in the campaign. He said that the opposition parties criticised him indecently during the election campaign but he did not respond to anyone. “Performance and deeds, not sit-ins bring about success in politics. Thanks God, we are setting a new record of development in Pakistan that is being evidenced by the world. Pakistan has joined the emerging markets,” the prime minister remarked. “We will emulate the model of development of Pakistan in Azad Kashmir,” he said.

Amid the slogans, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said by giving the PML-N a two-third majority, the people of Azad Kashmir had pleased and won over him. For this reason, he could not stop visiting them the very next day of the elections. He said the development being witnessed in Pakistan would now change the fate of Azad Kashmir as a new era of progress would herald here.

The prime minister also thanked the activists of Muslim Students Federation, the youth wing of his party for their dedicated efforts to help the party win a thumping victory in the elections. He assured the newly-elected MLAs that all of their commitments, they had made with their constituents, would be fulfilled.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said that he never discriminated between Pakistan and Azad Kashmir and recalled that the PML-N had recently obtained a two-thirds majority in the elections of the Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly. He said that people of Azad Kashmir had been faced with massive corruption in the past and the results of this election were a reaction to the malpractices. “It will not happen again. Every penny will be accounted for. I myself will oversee (the spending),” the prime minister assured.

However, the prime minister said at this moment of celebration, we should not forget the oppressed people of Indian occupied Kashmir who had been sacrificing their lives for their freedom. No one can deter their movement. This will be crowned with success. They are being killed. We are awaiting their prayers to be fulfilled and for the day when Kashmir will become Pakistan,” the prime minister added.

He said that people of Pakistan are with their brethren of occupied Kashmir and would never give up their support. He concluded his speech by raising a slogan about the success of the freedom movement of occupied Kashmir.

Prime Minister Nawaz said that his government would expand his government’s health scheme for the poor to Muzaffarabad currently and later to the entire Azad Kashmir as the scheme ensures free health treatment to deserving.

In his address, AJK PML-N President Raja Farooq Haider thanked the people and hoped that Azad Kashmir would achieve progress under the leadership of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Noreen Arif, the female MLA-elect, said the Nawaz Sharif’s government had introduced several projects for uplift of the youth and requested him to launch such projects in Azad Kashmir as well.

Later, the prime minister mixed up with the residents of Muzaffarabad by stopping his cavalcade at the Neelum Bridge.

They chanted slogans in his support and the prime minister waved to respond to their sentiments. Federal Ministers Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Senator Pervaiz Rashid, Barjis Tahir and Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) Dr Syed Asif Saeed Kirmani accompanied the prime minister who was received by the PML-N leader Raja Farooq Haider, Shah Ghulam Qadir, and Chief Secretary Raja Sikandar Sultan, IG Police Bashir Ahmad Memon, and PML-N leaders in the capital of Azad Kashmir.