LA HOR E: The city woke up late in the afternoon, and partially, to the arrival of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who returned to his home town on Saturday after four years of self-imposed exile, and even that political activity was restricted to the venue of public rally and a few kilometers radius around it sparingthe restofLahore.

For the rest of the city, it was business as usual for better part of the daymissing festivities on the roads that are normally attached to such a `mega political event,` as his party PML-N tried to portray it. Though the rally was well attended, it failed to make an impact on the city missing what they call, the Lahori flavour. Lahore which was considered PML-N fortress gave a cold response to Nawaz homecoming welcome.

The PML-N had an explanation to offer for restricted-to-the-venue greeting reception. `The event is organised as such. It had two focal points: public rally at Iqbal Park and Nawaz Sharif. It is for this reason no en-route public interaction of former prime minister was considered: he was directly taken to the venue from airport. Secondly, no other speech was allowed. The success of the party can thus only be measured on twin factors: how well-attended the rally is and how well-received his speech is going to be,` claims a party leader.

This party planning, however, defies city history of such events, especially if the [recent] PTI`s 2011 rally is the benchmark. On Oct 30, 2011, the city witnessedmassive day-long noisy and lively celebrations on the roads. All main arteries were taken over by motorcyclist youth, playing party songs, honking horns of vehicles and allkinds ofbuses,vans and coasters ferrying party men to different points and creating psychological impact.

The PML-N either missed the point or it did not have youth to create that kind of political partying on the roads.According to confession of a party (PMLN) leader, who did not want to be named for the (political) sensitivity of his analysis: `The demography of the country has certainly changed in the last one decade or so. It is now dominated by youth. The PML-N (read Nawaz Sharif) is not as relevant to it as it used to be. He is an old man, surrounded by old guards and came back to appeal to his old constituency, whereas the vast majority is young and unable to connect with him. Maryam is trying hard to cultivate youth. Her countless conventions of social media groups, influencers, youth and determined effort to support people, especially womenfolk, is an effort to fill the gap. It will, however, take time. Till then, the party has to pay the price as it did on Saturday a successful rally in a corner of the city, without creating revelry in the city.

The shifting venues, conflicting news about reception and planning also created confusion among the party supporters in the city. The PML-N originally planned a reception at the airport and held a number of rallies to drum up sup-port. It was, however, dropped for lack of desired results.

On Saturday, it was announced that the party supremo would reach the venue directlyfromtheairport.Rumours spread in the first half of the day that he would go to his Jati Umra residence first and may take a rally to the venue, keeping a sizable number of workers at his residence to accompany him. Ultimately, he was taken to the venue directly from the airport. This confusion persisted throughout the day and later cost the party.

The PML-N on its part insists: `The reception was organised as a nationalevent, not a local one. That is why activities on the city roads remained missing.

Workers from all over the country were directed to reach the venue directly. Had they been told to ply city roads, they could have created any amount of political impact. Even, candidates for 13 National Assembly and 25 provincial assembly seats took their rallies to the venue journeying through the city.

Banners, billboards, flags and steamers, however, made up what the party had lacked in manpower on the city roads. As said proverbially, the city was painted red: all its major roads were festooned with reception banners and billboards. Their amount and frequency increased as one travelled to the venue, which had spread to three kilometer radius: Nasser Bagh, Railways Station and Shahdara. Ring Road and Bund Road, two encircling roads of the city, also witnessed heavy traffic as workers from different cities of the province reached Greater Iqbal Park.

SPECIAL TRAINS: There were scenes of festivity and jubilation at the Lahore Railway Station on Saturday when four special trains carrying over 5,000 PML-N workers reached there from Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at different times.

The jubilant workers were chanting slogans for their leader and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif who returned to the country after a four years long selfimposed exile.

`It is time to take the country out of the worst-ever economic crisis and it is only possible if we support Nawaz Sharif,` said a PML-N worker while talking to the media on his arrival at the Lahore station from Karachi.

`Imran Khan has devastated this country but our Quaid, Nawaz Sharif, will put it back on the road to prosperity,` he declared.