Not so proper farewell to Javed Hashmi

One can count on fingers politicians like Javed Hashmi in Pakistan. He remained in jail for his principles for almost a decade. His political career is not tainted with corruption allegations and he talks sense most of the time.
Without badmouthing policies or leaders of his former party,  the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), he joined the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI). The PML-N leadership has failed to give a proper farewell to their party's most loyalist parliamentarian. Hashmi, who paid tribute to the workers of the PML-N in his address at the PTI Karachi rally, is facing criticism.
This criticism is not coming from his former colleagues but family members of the PML-N leadership. Hamza Shahbaz and Captain (r) Safdar, both son and son-in-law, respectively, of PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif has criticised Hashmi's defection is a very degrading way.

Always a rebel!

Addressing a press conference in Peshawar, Captain Safdar, whose only claim to fame is his love marriage with the daughter of Nawaz Sharif, has said, "If Hashmi had mentioned this before, we could have collected Rs10 million for him in alms from Peshawar alone." The whole nation knows that if Hashmi was up for sale, Musharraf would have bought him. When the whole Nawaz Sharif family accepted exile instead of facing the trial, Hashmi faced it bravely. I wonder how Captain Safdar has forgotten the history so quickly. Safdar's statement is quite shameful for him.
Hamza Shahbaz was the first to criticise Hashmi, saying the PML-N is not affected by anyone leaving the it.
These two statements are enough to damage the PML-N's public image, which has been maintained by a group of senior journalists headed by Pervez Rashid. A proper farewell to Hashmi by the PML-N leadership would have lifted the PML-N's image.

PTI rally versus PML-N rally

I can I will! courtesy AFP.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf’s (PTI) mass congregation at Minar-e-Pakistan is the largest by all social and politcal standards of Pakistan. The PTI is a 15-year-old budding party, who has never been in the power not even in the opposition in the elected houses. The PTI has arranged 50,000 seats for the people. These seats were filled several hours before the congregation started. Various media assessments state the number of audience around 70,000 people in the PTI rally.

This number is huge when all these people come on their own. On the other hand, the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz used all unfair means to gather people in their rally two days ago. All the government departments, revenue officials and bureaucracy were ordered to bring buses laden with people carrying party flags and banners. The bureaucracy in Gujranwala alone arranged 400 buses to fill the PML-N’s Lahore rally. However, all the people in the PTI congregation came on their own, paid their own fare, ordered the party flags themselves. When Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) fills its rallies by threat, the PML-N owes its large political gatherings to Patwaris (revenue officials), the PTI’s Lahore congregation is mammoth because it was filled in by the people of Pakistan.