The former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's visit to Karachi is aimed at giving a task to party's provincial leadership to project the party's development initiatives as well as play its due role in bringing normalcy in the economic hub of the country with an aim to gain support for the general elections.
The first visit to Karachi after his disqualification by the Supreme Court in Panama Papers case, the former Prime Minister along with allied parties' leaders including Mehmood Khan Achakzai and Hasil Khan Bizinjo is primarily aimed at addressing a seminar on 'future of democracy in Pakistan' on Friday (today), besides holding meetings with PML-N provincial office- bearers.
However, talking to Business Recorder Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab said that this is an election year and Nawaz Sharif would go to every part of the country including Karachi to seek support of the people for the party in upcoming general elections. He said that the purpose of former Prime Minister's visit to Karachi is to mobilize the party's provincial leadership for furthering the party's agenda and disseminating its manifesto to the people. He added that the elected local representatives will also be given task to muster support for the party at union council levels.
Contrary to the party's earlier strategy in 2013 to target Punjab in the elections being the majority shareholder in 342-member National Assembly, PML-N Senator from Karachi Saleem Zia said that Nawaz Sharif will spearhead the party election campaign across the country and focus will also be given to Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in this year's elections.
He maintained that PML-N government restored the peace in Karachi and launched various development initiatives in the city that would benefit the people of Karachi. "Karachi of today is presenting a different look as compared to Karachi before 2013. Law and order situation has been restored and the credit for this goes to the PML-N government", he further maintained.
According to him, the PML-N will get support of the people on the basis of performance in the general elections, adding Nawaz Sharif's visit to Karachi is also part of his mass-contact drive with an objective to muster support for the party in general elections.
He said that electricity load shedding was the major problem of the country and Karachi being the economic hub was the worst victim of power shedding. "The power shedding has now largely been controlled with the completion of various energy projects and we are confident that the country would get rid of load shedding after completion of energy projects under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) this year", he said.
He pointed out two units of Port Qasim Coal-Fired Project of 1320 MW have been completed and are generating electricity under CPEC. The party insiders further revealed that Nawaz Sharif in his visit to Karachi would also task the provincial leadership to approach the anti-PPP political forces, especially the nationalist political parties in the province for possible election alliance and seat adjustments in various constituencies in interior Sindh as well in Karachi .
After Karachi, Nawaz Sharif will also visit Peshawar on Sunday to address a public meeting. Nawaz Shiarf already addressed a number of public gatherings in different parts of the country, including in Quetta , Kot Momim, Abbottabad, Haripur and Jaranwala as part of his mass-contact drive after his disqualification.