Aun Chaudhry to face music for meeting Nawaz Sharif at airport

Jahangir Tareen's Istihkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) will be issuing a show-cause notice to its Additional Secretary General Aun Chaudhry following his meeting with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif at Lahore airport.

The party has also sought a written response from Chaudhry if he met the PML-N elder "in a personal capacity".

The development comes after Geo News obtained a video that showed the IPP office bearer meeting the former prime minister and former finance minister Ishaq Dar at the Allama Iqbal International Airport shortly before Nawaz's departure to Minar-e-Pakistan.

"IPP has nothing to do with Chaudhry's meeting with Nawaz Sharif", the party said, while distancing itself from the meeting that took place at the Lahore airport.

Chaudhry — a former aide of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan — had thrown his weight behind Jahangir Khan Tareen and resigned as special adviser to the Punjab chief minister in August 2021 after he was asked to clarify his position on whether he stands with Tareen or the party in the wake of the differences between Imran and Tareen in connection with a high-profile sugar scam.

Meanwhile, commenting on Nawaz's return, IPP spokesperson Firdous Ashiq Awan said that the country is being unnecessarily involved in the May 9 and May 28 debates.

"Surrendering oneself before the court is the first step towards improvement," Awan said while commenting on the PML-N supremo's existing legal woes.

Three-time former prime minister Nawaz returned to Pakistan today after a four-year-long self-imposed exile in London, in a grand welcome by his party at Lahore's Minar-e-Pakistan.

The former prime minister briefly landed in Islamabad, where he signed and filed appeals against the convictions he was jailed for before he left the country in 2019. After a few hours' stay, Nawaz flew to Lahore to kick-start his party's campaign for next year's election in a rally of thousands of his supporters.

Addressing a massive crowd, the PML-N supremo said that he had no intention of taking revenge on his political opponents and at the same time asked all constitutional institutions to join hands for the country's development.