LAHORE: PML-N Punjab President Rana Sanaullah indicated on Friday that his party would be contesting the polls solo in Punjab as he announced it was fielding candidates in all constituencies of the national and provincial assemblies in the province.
His remarks come after the prime minister promised timely elections after the government’s tenure comes to an end in August.
In a news conference in Lahore, the interior minister said: “The PML-N is beginning its electoral activities and for this purpose, an organisational meeting of the Punjab [chapter] has been called. The primary agenda that will be discussed is our resolve to take forward the election activity in Punjab with full force.
“All national and provincial constituencies, which number 433 — 297 of which are provincial and 146 are NA constituencies — in all those, a PML-N candidate will be present,” he asserted.
A day ago, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said that the parliamentary committee on electoral reforms, which met for the third day in a row, had completed 99 per cent of the work regarding the preparations for the polls.
He had also said that all parties agreed on the proposed certifications and that while the PTI had objected to a few points, they would be resolved soon with PTI Senator Ali Zafar assuring them of his suggestions on the remaining issues.
Last week, it was reported that meetings between PML-N and PPP bigwigs in the United Arab Emirates had purportedly resulted in a consensus on a number of issues, including names for the caretaker set-up and a power-sharing formula if the two parties win the next election.
In his media talk today, Sanaullah noted that it had been the case sometimes that in a few constituencies, the PML-N had not fielded its candidates for the elections.
However, this time, the party has taken it as a challenge to ensure that its party symbol — the tiger — would be present in every constituency, he added.
Recalling that the PML-N had organised the party in Punjab up to the Union Council level, the minister expressed his party’s intentions to fully back its candidates in the upcoming elections.
Sanaullah also said there was a possibility that in constituencies where the party would need help — such as southern Punjab — there could be talks with other parties about seat adjustments.
“If a party talks about seat adjustment, our criteria would be that we would not compromise on our winning and dedicated candidates,” he said.
Sanaullah went on to recall the PML-N’s achievements during its past tenures, specifically mentioning the 1999 tests that made Pakistan a nuclear power.
Recalling the party’s tenure from 2013-2018 and the party supremo Nawaz Sharif’s ouster, the PML-N leader said that a conspiracy was hatched at a time when “all newspapers were saying that Pakistan was becoming an economic power”.
The minister then proceeded to criticise the previous PTI government, saying that it “divided the country’s politics and injected poison in it, and misled the youth”.
Sanaullah lamented that “false cases were made under political vendetta” against his party leadership and “innocent people were sent to jail”.
Insisting that the coalition government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has once again brought the country out of economic crises and saved it from default, the PML-N leader vowed to put the country back on the path of progress after elections.
“If the public trusts us this time, we will not disappoint you,” the minister asserted while saying the PML-N’s first and foremost priority was ending the ongoing crises and the country’s prosperity.
