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Nawaz to hold ‘mammoth’ public meeting in Karachi

By Our Correspondent
February 19, 2018

KARACHI: Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif will soon address a “mammoth” public meeting in Karachi, and he wants the city to get more importance as enjoyed by Lahore on the basis of development of Punjab’s capital, a news conference was told on Sunday.

“For this very reason he [Sharif] has gifted a number of major development projects to Karachi, including the special package for the city,” Mushahidullah Khan, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) central information secretary and federal climate change minister, told the media at the Karachi Press Club.

Khan said the ex-premier had not carried out development works in Punjab alone, but also strived to develop all parts and provinces of the country on a uniformed basis.

“Peace has been revived in Karachi as a major gift for the people of the city by the former PM.” He said that apart from revival of peace, the development projects having a combined value of several billions of rupees were launched in the city, and the Green Line busway was one such major project.

The PML-N leader said the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) being two major political parties of Sindh did nothing for the development of the province despite their decades-long rule here. He accused Sindh’s MPAs of brazenly selling their political affiliations and loyalties for the upcoming Senate elections.

He saw no difference between the MQM’s Pakistan and London factions since, he claimed, the people affiliated with the party were staging a drama because both factions wanted to take Karachi hostage once again. “But we shall not allow it to happen again.” He said both the MQM and the PPP had done gross injustices and excesses with the rural and the urban parts of the province, adding that the Sindh government’s obligations towards the people of the province were actually being fulfilled by the federal administration. Khan said Karachi had been rescued from the clutches of terrorists and criminals by the Rangers and the police.

He said the PML-N had never targeted the judiciary, rather the party had rendered great sacrifices for restoration of the independence of the judiciary. “But it is very unfortunate that the judiciary’s onslaught is directed towards just a single party.”

The PML-N leader lamented that the true democratic process launched by Sharif and the late Benazir Bhutto through the signing of the Charter of Democracy was no more in practice in the city. He said the people of the country would once again overwhelmingly vote in favour of the PML-N and Sharif in the upcoming general elections.