PML-N quaid asks Shehbaz to join AJK polls campaign

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Quaid Nawaz Sharif has asked party president Shehbaz Sharif to join the campaign for Azad Kashmir legislature elections, being held on July 25.

Earlier, party’s vice president Maryam Nawaz was made sole in charge of the electioneering, and she will continue to hold the assignment. Sources in the PMLN told The News on Monday that the rival parties had already intensified their campaign through certain tactics, and the PML-N Quaid and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif discussed the situation with the party leaders in Azad Kashmir including Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider and Minister Mushtaq Minhas before engaging Shehbaz Sharif for the campaign.

Shehbaz has consented to join the campaign for the sake of party despite his health problems and other engagements, sources said and rejected an impression that he was joining the campaign due to power struggle in the party. “No such thing exists in the rank and file of the PMLN, although adversaries of the party are aspiring for the same,” added the sources.

Maryam Nawaz, who is reaching Islamabad on Tuesday (today), would be proceeding for electioneering after appearing in the Islamabad High Court, while Shehbaz Sharif would soon be joining her. According to sources, she is feeling comfortable about joining of her uncle and party president in the campaign. Maryam will kick-start her campaign with an address to a public meeting in AJK capital Muzaffarabad on Thursday, July 8.

Sources said Shehbaz Sharif would address public gatherings in different constituencies of Azad Kashmir from the next week. The party is working out his schedule of public meeting addresses, visits and rallies. Sources said the opposition parties were perturbed at the campaign, being led by Maryam Nawaz, but the inclusion of Shehbaz Sharif had made them further upset, and that was why they were trying to spread rumours. Maryam and Shehbaz both are taking advice from Nawaz Sharif for the electioneering, the sources said.

According to the party plan, Maryam will visit AJK for 11 days, starting from Thursday. She will be in Azad Kashmir till July 19. She will address the first public meeting in Muzaffarabad on July 8, Neelam on July 9 and 10, Kohtian on July 11, Kotli on July 13 and public gatherings in Hajira and Rawalpindi on July 14.

Sources said that Maryam Nawaz would hold rallies in Bagh on July 18, Haveli on July 19, Baloch and Palandri on July 15, Bhimber and Mirpur on July 17.Our correspondent adds: Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) Monday held a meeting of the party candidates, taking part in the upcoming Azad Kashmir elections.

The meeting was held in Model Town under the chairmanship of PMLN Vice President and Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz. Ataullah Tarar, along with other party leaders, also attended the meeting.