Shehbaz urges masses to defeat candidates with 'bat, arrow, jeep' symbols

RAJANPUR: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Shehbaz Sharif Wednesday urged the masses to defeat candidates contesting the forthcoming elections with 'bat, jeep and arrow' as their electoral symbols.

Speaking at a rally in Rajanpur district of Punjab, the PML-N president said that Nawaz Sharif had to sleep on the floor on the first night in prison, adding that the former prime minister was not even allowed to meet their mother.

"Nawaz Sharif issued health cards in Punjab to facilitate the masses," he said, adding that the kind of hospital built by his party's government in Muzaffargarh was not even there in the United States.

On July 6, an accountability court had sentenced Nawaz and his daughter Maryam in absentia to 11 and eight years in prison respectively, in the Avenfield properties reference.

The father-daughter duo arrived in Pakistan on July 13, and were arrested upon arrival and subsequently shifted to Adiala prison. The ex-premier and his daughter since remain in jail and have filed appeals against the accountability court verdict.

Paying tribute to Baloch people who have a sizeable population in the region, the former Punjab chief minister said, "South Punjab is a stronghold of the PML-N."

Taking exception to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief, Shehbaz said that "nowadays the chairs at Imran's rallies lie empty just like his head.

"PML-N produced thousands of megawatts of electricity over the past five years, but 'Ilzaam Khan' failed to give only one kilowatt of electricity," he slammed the PTI chief.

"They staged sit-ins for past five years, told lies to people, levelled false allegations. Neither did they make a hospital, nor a college, and when dengue attacked Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, then liar Niazi Khan went to Nathia Gali."

"Can such a person be prime minister," he asked the participants at the rally.

The PML-N president further urged the masses to defeat the ones "with electoral symbols of bat, jeep and arrow" and vote for those contesting the polls on 'lion' symbol.

The general election is scheduled in the country for July 25, for which electioneering by political parties has been in full swing.

Political leaders have been holding rallies in different parts of the country to woo the voters.

Earlier today, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also addressed political gatherings in Lala Musa and Mandi Bahauddin, where he said the PTI chairman should not have the misconception of becoming the prime minister by hatching conspiracies.

Imran also addressed supporters in Nathia Gali and Jhelum on Wednesday. The PTI chief said that reports were not good with regard to the July 25 polls, adding that people will have to come out of their homes on the day of elections.

"[We] have to get rid of Nawaz and Zardari on July 25," Khan told supporters in Jhelum later in the day.