Sharif rally draws a huge crowd

MANSEHRA, Pakistan: The frontrunner in Pakistan’s election race, opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, attracted tens of thousands yesterday to a rally at which he promised development and economic revival.
Sharif traveled to the northwestern town of Mansehra, a stronghold of his Pakistan Muslim League-N party, where supporters packed a huge stadium.
Two police officials estimated the crowd at up to 30,000, in contrast to the hundreds who greeted former military ruler Pervez Musharraf on his return to Pakistan Sunday after four years in exile to contest the polls.
Opinion polls are notoriously unreliable in Pakistan, but indicators suggest Sharif is likely to emerge the biggest winner from the general election on May 11, which will mark the country’s first democratic transition of power. The stadium was decorated with large portraits of Sharif and banners reading “Tiger of Pakistan, we love you” and “Welcome prime minister of Pakistan, pride of Pakistan.”
The PML-N’s election symbol is a tiger and the rally featured a live tiger in a cage.
Many voters are disillusioned with the outgoing Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government, saddled with allegations of corruption and mismanagement. Security and the economy have worsened over the last five years.
“Last time we carried out nuclear explosions. Now we will carry out economic explosions,” Sharif told the crowd. Sharif ordered a bullet-proof screen around his podium to be removed, a move greeted with loud applause. But security was extremely tight with police commandos patrolling with AK-47s and a buffer zone ringed with barbed wire around the stage.
He promised that if his party was elected a third time, he would build a motorway from Lahore to Karachi, Pakistan’s business capital on the Arabian Sea.
“I am not fond of power, I only want to see my country progressing and my people prosper,” he told the crowd.
Mohammad Afzal, a student aged 18, said he would vote for Sharif.
“Only he can save us from load-shedding (chronic power cuts) and control inflation,” Afzal said.
A lawyer yesterday filed an application in the Supreme Court demanding that Musharraf be barred from leaving the country until he stands trial for ordering a siege against a militant mosque in Islamabad in July 2007.
The operation left more than 100 people dead and opened the floodgates to attacks in Pakistan, which have killed thousands since then. Musharraf’s All Pakistan Muslim League party canceled a press conference he had been due to give in Karachi.