MUHAMMAD SALEEM & HAMID WALEED

LAHORE: Kulsoom Nawaz will hold the first-ever meeting of party workers from NA-120 today to chalk out a campaign strategy for September 17 by-elections, said party sources.

They said former premier Nawaz Sharif may also attend the meeting. Kulsoom will hold this meeting at her residence in Raiwind, the sources added.

It may be noted that Kulsoom Nawaz has filed her nomination papers to contest by-elections in NA-120 after disqualification of Nawaz Sharif by the Supreme Court in Panama case. She has never contested any election in the past and her political activity was restricted to a short struggle for the release of his spouse after a military coup of General Pervez Musharraf.

Interestingly, the electronic media had reported a day earlier that Kulsoom was also carrying an Iqama as vice-chairman of FZE Capital in Dubai.

However, provincial minister Zaeem Qadri said she had relinquished it in 2007. Since she was not filing tax return therefore she was not supposed to disclose it anywhere, he added.

President PML-N Lahore Pervaiz Malik confirmed the meeting, saying the party workers and elected representatives from the provincial constituencies would participate in it. He admitted that the party workers would have to work hard to maintain the party image in the constituency.

The sources in the PML-N said Kulsoom Nawaz, resident of Ravi Road, which was part of NA-120, had strong support base in the constituency.

The PML-N workers of the constituency are jubilant over nomination of Kuslsoom Nawaz as party candidate for NA-120.

The PML-N MPA from this constituency, Majid Zahoor, told this scribe that NA-120 would prove waterloo for our opponents. “We would win the election with thumping majority,” he claimed.

Meanwhile, the PTI has upgraded its campaign in the constituency with steamers, posters and pamphlets of Dr Yasmin Rashid. She had given a tough fight to the deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 2013 general elections when she bagged over 50,000 votes against over 90,000 votes secured by Nawaz Sharif.

The PTI workers have launched a full-fledged election campaign in the constituency that has already heightened the political temperature in the constituency.