Amidst the slogans of ‘Go Zardari Go’, prodded by Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Central General Council on Wednesday elected Nawaz Sharif party president unopposed and his younger brother strongly advised him to raise a lashkar (army) to besiege thieves and plunderers without wasting a single day.
Nawaz had stepped down as party president in favour of Shahbaz in 2002 when General (r) Pervez Musharraf, through an ordinance, barred a convict from becoming a member, office-bearer or head of a political party, besides disqualifying a political party from contesting election if its head was a convict.
The PML-N’s central general council meeting which elected Nawaz president and Javed Hashmi senior vice president, turned into an informal launch of the PML-N’s decisive movement against the PPP-led coalition government.
Thousands of PML-N workers and parliamentarians gathered at the Convention Centre to take part in the party’s election for the central office bearers were least interested in the announcements made by the party’s election commission head, Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, about the unopposed election of the four vice presidents of the party, including Ghous Ali Shah from Sindh, Sartaj Aziz from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sardar Yaqub Nasir from Balochistan and Sardar Sikandar Hayat from Azad Jammu and Kashmir, but they completely supported Shahbaz’s anti-Zardari tirade asking the party’s newly-elected president to “get rid of the corrupt government”.
Senator Raja Zafarul Haq was elected party chairman. The PML-N’s Central General Council also elected Ahsan Iqbal, Ayaz Sadiq, Senator Mushahidullah and Khurram Dastgir Khan party’s deputy general secretary, finance secretary, information secretary and deputy information secretary respectively because none of the members of the party had submitted their nomination papers against any elected office bearers.
The PML-N skipped the election of the secretary general for which Nawaz said some office bearers would be elected later. PML-N central leader Saranjaam Khan, who recently resigned from the basic membership of the party due to differences on the election of district office bearers, also attended the meeting.
After the oath-taking ceremony of the newly-elected central office bearers, a jam-packed Convention Centre witnessed politically-charged and fiery speeches from Javed Hashmi and the Punjab chief minister.
“Zardari’s politics know no principles and love for the country,” Hashmi said.
Shahbaz, visibly upset over ongoing executive-judiciary standoff, asked Nawaz to not waste a single day in launching a decisive movement against the government headed by “corrupt rulers”.
“Mr President (Nawaz Sharif), you have to bring Zardari’s wealth back from Swiss accounts. It is the wealth of the widows, the poor peasants and the orphans of the country. A gang of Ali Baba and the forty thieves is ruling the country,” he said.
Shahbaz said the government was constantly disgracing the judiciary to save the corrupt who had looted the Punjab Bank and were involved in the multi-billion NICL scam. He said the PML-N must not wait until the next elections, adding that a delay could deprive the country from the remaining resources not yet looted by the corrupt rulers.
Shahbaz said he was ready to pay a price in the form of the Punjab government for launching a movement to get rid of the apathetic rulers. “Ask me to tender my resignation from the slot of Punjab chief minister. I will go to the masses and persuade them to stand up for their rights,” he said talking to Nawaz.
He also recited a famous poem of revolutionary poet Habib Jalib to warm the party workers’ blood.
Roadmap: Addressing the party’s Central General Council meeting, the PML-N president said the party would soon evolve a roadmap on Shahbaz’s proposal of sending the PPP-led coalition government packing.
“Shahbaz Sharif’s speech reflects the true emotions of the nation. We can not remain silent anymore. I have also asked the chief whip of the PML-N to requisite a National Assembly session on the government’s defiance of the Supreme Court,” he said.
Criticising the government, Nawaz said the loans taken in the last three years were equal to the loans borrowed during the past 40 years. “The energy crisis is ever increasing, there is no electricity and gas in the country, industries are closed down, inflation is skyrocketing, unemployment is ever increasing, corruption is rampant, the orders of the judiciary are being defied. There is corruption of 400 billions in the official institutions. The corrupt are being protected. The decisions of parliament are not being complied with,” he said.
He said the formation of new provinces was not a bad thing. However, it should be done on an administrative ground. “I am in favor of forming new provinces when and where they are necessary to solve the problems of the people and to provide them the necessary facilities. But if these provinces are made on linguistic or racial basis, it will damage the security and integrity of Pakistan,” he said.
Nawaz said the PML-N had prepared a blue print of an accountability system.
The PML-N’s Central General Council also passed resolutions for amending party constitution as well as condemning rigging in the AJK elections, deteriorating law and order and drone attacks. The party’s council also passed resolution for probing Akbar Bugti’s murder and trying Pervez Musharraf for treason under Article 6 of the constitution.
Felicitations: President Asif Zardari felicitated Nawaz on becoming the PML-N president. President Zardari said Nawaz’s unopposed election was a measure of trust reposed in him by his party, APP reported.
According to president’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar, President Zardari expressed hope that the PML-N under the leadership of Nawaz Sharif would continue to play a positive role in strengthening democracy, supremacy of parliament and rule of law in the country as well as in promoting national reconciliation.