Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday joined the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz)’s election campaign in Gilgit-Baltistan, decrying the lack of development in the region.
General elections in GB would take place this Sunday, June 7. Ahead of the polls, leaders of both the PMLN and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) have entered the field to campaign for their candidates. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Gohar Ali Khan is also in the region, though the party alleges it is being treated unfairly and has been prevented from campaigning.
“I am speaking to you after many years,” said Sharif in his address. “Isn’t that the case? Perhaps you have forgotten me,” he said, maintaining he “wholeheartedly loved” GB and its people. “When I saw the condition of the roads after exiting the airport, I cannot even describe it. It hurt me immensely. Where is the Gilgit that I used to know?” he said, questioning where funds intended for development were spent.
Asserting that the PMLN had worked to develop infrastructure such as roads, he lamented that the area had been ignored by successive governments. Emphasizing that he did not wish to criticize any other party or individual, he said the PMLN believed in seeking votes through its work.
“The road that I had started was not built up to here, it should have been and then built further till Khunjerab,” he said, noting that building the road until Skardu had cost Rs. 50 billion. “It is the right of the people of GB, not a favor that I am doing to you,” he said, adding the PMLN had also constructed hospitals, power plants and hydel power plants in the past.
“Tell me if any other party has even placed a brick here,” he questioned, adding it “saddened” him to see the airport in the exact same situation as his previous tenure in 2013-2017. He assured the participants of the campaign event he would personally meet Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and ask him to expand the airport so that commercial jets could operate there.
During his address, the PMLN president noted there was great potential for generating hydel and solar electricity in the region, adding it was “unacceptable” that the area had load-shedding of over 20 hours in winters and of up to 12 hours in summers. He asserted that whether or not the PMLN won the upcoming polls, the federal government would strive to end this deprivation.
He further said that he would urge both the prime minister and Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz to visit GB, adding he would also visit every 2-3 months if the PMLN came into power.
Referring to his previous tenure, Sharif recalled he had formed a committee in 2017 for GB’s share in the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award. “Do not complain to me. I am not ready to hear this grievance because this is your fault as well, why did you let a person like me be exiled,” he said, referring to his ouster, detention, and then eventual exile in London. “Why did I have to leave the country and go abroad? Why were [we] jailed?” he continued.
Describing GB as the center of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the former premier said it should be developed accordingly, with electric buses for public transport and new hospitals. He said if the PMLN was elected into power, it would expand a cancer hospital and launch housing loan schemes local residents and interest-free loan programs for youth for businesses.
He further vowed to have a women’s university constructed in the region if the PMLN got another chance to govern the region.