HALA, Jan 19: Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif, the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, has said that a judicious use of ballot would put the country on the right track and voters must use their right of franchise in the coming elections.

He said politics should not be used to divide the people, adding that politics that served the masses was needed to change their destiny. He said if the people elected him to power, he would work round the clock to overcome the daunting problems faced by the country.

Regarding the local government law and talk about division of Sindh for which the public meeting was organised by the Sindh United Party (SUP), he said the PML-N loathed politics of division and hatred.  “See Sindh with one eye and there shouldn’t be different local government laws in one province (Sindh)”, he said. He added that since Pakistanis were one nation, they should have the same system in the whole country. “There shouldn’t be different systems for those who live in the south or in the north.”

Mr Sharif was speaking at a gathering organised by the SUP on a ground off the National Highway in Hala, Matiari district, some 40 kilometres from Hyderabad on Saturday against the LG law passed by the Sindh Assembly. The event also marked the 62nd birth anniversary of SUP senior vice president Shah Mohammad Shah. SUP president Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah, Shah Mohammad Shah, PML-N leaders Ghaus Ali Shah, Mumtaz Bhutto and Sindh Tarraqi-passand Party chairman Dr Qadir Magsi also spoke. PML-N leaders Liaquat Jatoi, Saleem Zia and others were present.

He asked the audience if they knew how to rightly use the ballot. “This is the only way that we can become the master of our own destiny and for which you have to stamp ballots correctly otherwise you won’t be able to rid yourselves of the present rulers”, he said.

He recounted his previous trips of Sindh in the wake of disasters in 2010 and 2011. “I remember the conditions people were in following the rain and floods caused destructions and I had proposed to the government to pay Rs100,000 compensation to each family,” he said. It was his successive tours to Sindh that prompted government to move otherwise it was sitting idle, he added.

It was the first Sharif address at a public gathering in Hala – the stronghold of the Makhdooms of the ruling party – where the recent emergence of an anti-Makhdooms alliance (Awami Ittehad Matiari) has generated excitement in local politics. President Asif Ali Zardari had visited Hala on Dec 25 to have lunch with the Makhdooms. Mr Sharif promised that when an election schedule was announced, he would be visiting Sindh again.

He expressed his concern over measles-related deaths, regretting that Pakistan was still facing measles though it was hardly reported in any other country.

Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah said that it had been a dream of the people that they see a real democracy here because democracy never meant numerical victory and it was something that ensured transparency, accountability, equity etc. He reiterated that Pakistan was a multi-nation state and referred to the six-point charter the SUP had signed with the PML-N.

Shah Mohammad Shah said the LG system had practically divided Sindh, he added. The people had repeatedly voted the PPP into power since the ‘70s, yet it tried to divide Sindh. He said that Pir Pagara, nationalists and Jalal Shah were now with Mr Sharif.

Dr Qadir Magsi appreciated Mr Sharif’s principled stand on Sindh’s issues, especially in the wake of the LG law.