Ex-PM Sharif to hold election rallies across Pakistan, party says days after his return from exile

In this photo, taken on October 21, 2023, Pakistan's former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif (top C) addresses his supporters gathered at a park during an event held to welcome him in Lahore. (AFP/File)

• The party of Sharif’s rival, ex-PM Imran Khan, says it has already finalized candidates for each constituency to ‘sweep the polls’ 
• Political analyst says elections cannot be called free and fair on the basis of ‘pre-poll rigging’ being done to damage Khan’s PTI 

ISLAMABAD: Three-time former prime minister Nawaz Sharif will be addressing public gatherings across Pakistan as part of his party’s election campaign for which a detailed schedule will be chalked out in the coming days, a senior member of his party said on Tuesday, more than a week after his return to the country from a self-imposed exile.
The statement came after Sharif chaired a meeting of party members at his residence in Jati Umra, Lahore to discuss the formation of parliamentary boards for distribution of party tickets to candidates, election campaign schedule and the manifesto of his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party for the general elections due to be held in January.
Sharif resumes political activities after a hiatus of around four years following his return on October 21 from a self-imposed exile in London. In 2018, the three-time former premier was handed down seven- and ten-year prison sentences in two separate corruption cases, though he managed to fly to London in November 2019 on medical grounds. He was also disqualified for life from holding any public office.
Prior to his return to Pakistan, Sharif not only secured protective bail from the Islamabad High Court, but the court last week restored his appeals against conviction. However, the courts have yet to suspend or overturn the sentences for Sharif to run in elections.
“Nawaz Sharif will be leading the party’s election campaign and addressing public gatherings across Pakistan to win public support,” Rana Mashhood Ahmad, a senior PML-N figure, told Arab News, following the Lahore huddle.
“Each and everything was discussed in the meeting today, including formation of the parliamentary boards for issuance of tickets to potential candidates,” he said, adding his party was “fully ready” to go to the polls.
About Sharif’s legal hurdles, he said the PML-N legal team was looking into all the cases against the ex-premier and “apparently there is no serious legal challenge barring him from contesting the election.”
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, led by Sharif’s arch-rival Imran Khan, is also preparing to give a tough time to PML-N candidates in the election.
While Khan’s party gears up for elections, the ex-premier remains in jail on a judicial remand in a case related to leaking contents of an alleged diplomatic correspondence between Washington and Islamabad last year that Khan says is proof his ouster in a parliamentary no-trust vote in April 2022 was part of a US conspiracy to remove him.
“The PTI is fully prepared to trounce rival candidates in the elections, even if Imran Khan remains in jail during the campaign,” Barrister Gohar Khan, a member of the PTI’s core committee, told Arab News.
“We are not getting a level playing field, but our homework to go to the polls is complete.”
PTI parliamentary boards have already finalized potential candidates for each national and provincial constituency, and even adjustments have been made in constituencies where the candidates have announced quitting the party, according to Gohar.
Several PTI members, including top Khan aides, have quit the party in recent months, amid a crackdown on PTI supporters following alleged attacks by them on government and military installations on May 9, which came in reaction to Khan’s brief arrest in a graft case.
“We have selected a panel for vacant constituencies instead of a single candidate to make sure that PTI candidate contests the election from each constituency, come what may,” he said, denying the possibility of an alliance with other parties.
“Only a massive rigging in the polls could keep PTI from sweeping the election.”
Political analysts say pre-poll rigging has already been underway by not allowing the PTI even to hold worker conventions ahead of the elections, while the PML-N was having a hard time restoring its public appeal.
“If elections are held in the last week of January as per the election regulator’s announcement, they will not be called free and fair elections by any means. Tangible pre-poll rigging is being done to damage one party, PTI, ahead of the polls,” Zaigham Khan, a political analyst, told Arab News.
“The PTI is still the most popular party in KP (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) province despite all hardships, while the PML-N does not seem to reclaim its popularity even in Punjab. Political instability and uncertainty seem to continue in Pakistan even after the elections.”