Islamabad: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was re-elected unopposed on Tuesday as president of the Pakistan Muslim League (N), the party he has headed since its inception in 1985.
Speaking after the intraparty polls here, Sharif blasted his arch rival Imran Khan, who has threatened to lead a march by workers and supporters of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) into Islamabad on November 2 in a bid to shut down the capital.
The cricketer-turned-politician is demanding that Sharif resign or present himself and his family for accountability over their alleged offshore wealth cited in Panama Papers.
Without naming anyone, the prime minister said some “political jugglers” were trying to destabilise the system and reverse the country’s economic revival under his government.
The prime minister asserted that the designs of anti-progress elements would fail and the national capital would remain open and function normally.
Sharif expressed the confidence that the PML-N would win the next general election in 2018, wresting control also in northwestern Khyber Pakthunkhwa province where the PTI had won the mandate in 2013 general election.
According to media reports, the PML-N and the administration were making hectic preparations to face off the PTI threat to shut down Islamabad.
Imran Khan has voiced dismay that his invitation to other opposition parties to join the planned PTI march went unheeded, but vowed that masses would rise for building a corruption-free new Pakistan.
The PTI leader says protesters would block roads leading to government offices in Islamabad and stay put till achievement of their objective.
Last week he appealed to party workers throughout the country to donate funds — at least hundred rupee each — for expenses of the march.
