Seven-member PML-N team managing party affairs in, out of parliament

ISLAMABAD: A seven-member lineup of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) comprising senior leaders is managing its affairs and taking all key decisions in the absence of incarcerated former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

“If I and Shahbaz happen to be in jail at the same time and so unable to lead the consultations, the team will devise the party policies and firm up decisions in and out of the Parliament,” a PML-N leader, who is member of the group, told The News.

The members of the advisory body, which was approved by the PML-N Central Executive Committee in December last before the conviction of Nawaz Sharif by an Accountability Court of Islamabad, were named later. Consisting of former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, ex-Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, former Foreign Minister Khawaja M Asif, ex-Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, Ahsan Iqbal, Rana Tanvir and Maryam Aurangzeb, the forum is effectively working.

Ayaz Sadiq said that the cluster frequently meets for discussion on important issues and also decides the PML-N’s response to different government moves, policies and programmes. He said the team often consults with the Parliamentary Party of the PML-N about the business of the National Assembly and how it will react on daily basis on the floor in every session.

Ayaz Sadiq said that all or some of the members of the group hold sessions with Speaker Asad Qaisar to discuss the House business on day-to-day basis when the latter deems it fit for consultations with the PML-N.

The team also liaises with the PML-N senators about the business in the Upper House of Parliament. The objective is that both the parliamentary parties take similar stands on all issues during proceedings.

The former speaker said that when required the group holds consultations with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal and other opposition parties to take a joint stand vis-à-vis unacceptable official policies and decisions. Most of the walkouts from the Parliament are coordinated among the opposition parties.

Whenever the group needs directions from PML-N supremo on most important issues, its members see him in the Kot Lakhpat jail Lahore. They remain in constant touch with Shahbaz Sharif after he was bailed out by the Lahore High Court in the Ashiana Housing Scheme and Ramzan Sugar Mills cases.

There was a time when both Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif were simultaneously behind bars leaving the PML-N in a crisis-like situation. At the time, the Sharifs constituted the present cluster so that there is no uncertainty in the party about its policies.

With the PML-N president being out of jail on bail, the former speaker said Shahbaz Sharif is now available to the team for consultations. He said that it was because of the close coordination and consultations in the PML-N group that the party has adopted a proactive policy in the Parliament and has never been found wanting.