ISLAMABAD: The political showdown of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) began today as former prime minister Nawaz Sharif started his journey to Lahore with a rally through the Grand Trunk (GT) Road.
The top leadership of the PML-N including Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Senator Ishaq Dar and other senior leaders were present on the occasion. A large number of party workers had also gathered outside the Punjab House to accompany their leader.
Nawaz Sharif will travel some 280 kilometres from Islamabad to Lahore through the GT Road with his cavalcade passing through 15 National Assembly (NA) constituencies to reach NA-120 from where he was elected an MNA in the 2013 general elections.
Out of these 15 NA constituencies that fall in the route of the cavalcade, fourteen constituencies were won by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) in the 2013 general elections and only one NA-105 was grabbed by former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi.
The rally would first reach NA-52 (Rawalpindi III) from where former Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan was elected in the last general elections.
Then Nawaz Sharif with his supporters will enter NA-51 (Rawalpindi II), the constituency of Raja Muhammad Javed Ikhlas who is a staunch supporter of the PML-N and the Sharif family.
They will further travel towards Gujjar Khan and Sohawa and reach NA-62 (Jhelum I) which is also a stronghold of the PML-N from where Chaudhry Khadim Hussain was elected in 2013.
The caravan will cross Dina and Jhelum and move towards Sara-e-Alamgir to enter the area falling in NA-107 (Gujrat-IV). Chaudhry Abid Raza of the PML-N is the MNA in this constituency and a quite active political worker.
The cavalcade will then reach NA-106 (Gujrat III), the constituency of Chaudhry Jaffer Iqbal.
Then comes the constituency NA-105 (Gujrat II) that is the only one in the route of this caravan from where the candidate from the party other than the PML-N was elected. Former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi was elected from this constituency in 2013.
The political commentators opined that no untoward situation should happen at the time of the arrival of Nawaz Sharif and his supporters in this constituency as the Chaudhry brothers are quite mature politicians and would not create any problems for the participants of the caravan.
The caravan would then pass through NA-101 Gujranwala VII (Justice (retd) Iftikhar Ahmad Cheema), NA-97 Gujranwala III (Chaudhry Mehmood Bashir Virk), NA-96 Gujranwala II (Engr. Khurram Dastgir Khan), NA-98 Gujranwala IV (Mian Tariq Mehmood) and NA-99 Gujranwala V (Rana Umar Nazir Khan).
It will travel through Sadoke, Muredke and Kala Shah Kaku and reach NA-131 Sheikhupura I (Rana Afzal Hussain) before entering NA-132 Sheikhupura II (Rana Tanvir Hussain).
The participants of the caravan will then travel from Ferozwala towards NA-118 Lahore I (Muhammad Riaz Malik) after which it would pass through Shahdara to reach the final destination NA-120 from where Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif was elected an MNA and ultimately became the prime minister of Pakistan in 2013.
