LAHORE: The city woke up late in the afternoon, and partially, to the arrival of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who returned to his home town on Saturday after four years of self-imposed exile, and even that political activity was restricted to the venue of public rally and a few kilometers radius around it – sparing the rest of Lahore.

For the rest of the city, it was business as usual for better part of the day – missing festivities on the roads that are normally attached to such a “mega political event,” as his party PML-N tried to portray it. Though the rally was well attended, it failed to make an impact on the city – missing what they call, the Lahori flavour. Lahore which was considered PML-N fortress gave a cold response to Nawaz homecoming welcome.

The PML-N had an explanation to offer for restricted-to-the-venue greeting reception. “The event is organised as such. It had two focal points: public rally at Iqbal Park and Nawaz Sharif. It is for this reason no en-route public interaction of former prime minister was considered: he was directly taken to the venue from airport. Secondly, no other speech was allowed. The success of the party can thus only be measured on twin factors: how well-attended the rally is and how well-received his speech is going to be,” claims a party leader.

This party planning, however, defies city history of such events, especially if the [recent] PTI’s 2011 rally is the benchmark. On Oct 30, 2011, the city witnessed massive day-long noisy and lively celebrations on the roads. All main arteries were taken over by motorcyclist youth, playing party songs, honking horns of vehicles and all kinds of buses, vans and coasters ferrying party men to different points and creating psychological impact.

A party leader says Nawaz is not as relevant to youngsters as he used to be

The PML-N either missed the point or it did not have youth to create that kind of political partying on the roads. According to confession of a party (PML-N) leader, who did not want to be named for the (political) sensitivity of his analysis: “The demography of the country has certainly changed in the last one decade or so. It is now dominated by youth. The PML-N (read Nawaz Sharif) is not as relevant to it as it used to be. He is an old man, surrounded by old guards and came back to appeal to his old constituency, whereas the vast majority is young and unable to connect with him. Maryam is trying hard to cultivate youth. Her countless conventions of social media groups, influencers, youth and determined effort to support people, especially women folk, is an effort to fill the gap. It will, however, take time. Till then, the party has to pay the price as it did on Saturday – a successful rally in a corner of the city, without creating revelry in the city.”

The shifting venues, conflicting news about reception and planning also created confusion among the party supporters in the city. The PML-N originally planned a reception at the airport and held a number of rallies to drum up support. It was, however, dropped for lack of desired results.

On Saturday, it was announced that the party supremo would reach the venue directly from the airport. Rumours spread in the first half of the day that he would go to his Jati Umra residence first and may take a rally to the venue, keeping a sizable number of workers at his residence to accompany him. Ultimately, he was taken to the venue directly from the airport. This confusion persisted throughout the day and later cost the party.

The PML-N on its part insists: “The reception was organised as a national event, not a local one. That is why activities on the city roads remained missing. Workers from all over the country were directed to reach the venue directly. Had they been told to ply city roads, they could have created any amount of political impact. Even, candidates for 13 National Assembly and 25 provincial assembly seats took their rallies to the venue journeying through the city.”

Banners, billboards, flags and steamers, however, made up what the party had lacked in manpower on the city roads. As said proverbially, the city was painted red: all its major roads were festooned with reception banners and billboards. Their amount and frequency increased as one travelled to the venue, which had spread to three kilometer radius: Nasser Bagh, Railways Station and Shahdara. Ring Road and Bund Road, two encircling roads of the city, also witnessed heavy traffic as workers from different cities of the province reached Greater Iqbal Park.

SPECIAL TRAINS

There were scenes of festivity and jubilation at the Lahore Railway Station on Saturday when four special trains carrying over 5,000 PML-N workers reached there from Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at different times.

The jubilant workers were chanting slogans for their leader and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif who returned to the country after a four years long self-imposed exile.

“It is time to take the country out of the worst-ever economic crisis and it is only possible if we support Nawaz Sharif,” said a PML-N worker while talking to the media on his arrival at the Lahore station from Karachi.

“Imran Khan has devastated this country but our Quaid, Nawaz Sharif, will put it back on the road to prosperity,” he declared.

According to another worker, there were many PML-N supporters on various stations in the cities along the route who welcomed them. Some of them also reached Lahore in other trains to attend the PML-N public rally at Minar-i-Pakistan, he said.

The special trains carrying the PML-N workers started arriving at the Lahore Railway Station in the morning and the process continued until afternoon. According to a railways officer on duty, all the trains were jam-packed, having no sitting space for more passengers.

The outer parts of the passenger coaches were decorated with the banners inscribed with various slogans.

“Two trains arrived from Sindh. One was led by the former governor of Sindh Muhammad Zubair and the other had the former director general of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Bashir Memon,” said the officer at the Lahore station while talking to Dawn.

“Both trains were jam-packed and probably the number of passengers/workers in each train was over 3,000,” he said, adding that the trains led by Mr Zubair (from Karachi) and Mr Memon (from Hyderabad) arrived at Lahore at 1:15pm and 2pm, respectively. As soon as the trains arrived, the PML-N workers waiting for them in Lahore welcomed them by throwing rose petals on them.

The official added the first special train arrived at Lahore from Peshawar and it was led by the PML-N Peshawar office-bearers. The train, which arrived from Quetta at 3:10pm, also had the PML-N office-bearers. These trains were carrying almost 2,000 passengers since the capacity of the coaches was less than those arriving from Karachi and Hyderabad.

According to another official source at the station, PML-N Lahore chapter office-bearers also provided the workers with breakfast and lunch at the main station and Badami Bagh station. After eating meal, the workers went to the Greater Iqbal Park (Minar-i-Pakistan)—the venue of the PML-N’s public rally.

He said those who arrived from Peshawar and Rawalpindi didn’t disembark at main station as they all preferred to leave the train at Badami Bagh station from where the venue was nearer than the main station.

Lahore Station Railway Police SHO Shehzad Ahmad said foolproof security arrangements were made to guard all the passengers at the station on Saturday in a bid to avert any untoward event.

“Keeping in view the arrival of the special trains and expected increased rush of passengers, we increased deployment of police officials at all platforms at the station,” Mr Ahmad told Dawn. He said the deployment of more policemen would continue till departure of the workers by trains from Lahore to their cities.

Published in Dawn, October 22th, 2023