Nawaz, Shahbaz, Fazl reject calls for early elections

LAHORE: JUI-F chief Fazlur Rehman visited Jati Umra on Friday and held a meeting with PML-N head Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, during which they rejected the demand repeated by Imran Khan for early elections.

They also decided to contact other political parties to garner support for normalising the situation amid the ongoing political crisis. Earlier, Fazl held a separate meeting with Shahbaz at his Model Town residence and exchanged views on the political situation and termed the demand for holding of early elections as next to impossible and agreed to continue playing a role for strengthening democracy in future as well.

The chief minister said incompetent people, who had failed to deliver in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, were talking about the early polls. “The performance of the elements levelling baseless allegations has been fully exposed in their province. These are those elements which left the people of their province at the mercy of dengue and escaped to the mountains,” said Shahbaz.

He lamented the fact that Pakistan was willingly weakened by lies and dishonesty. “The through the power of their vote. We are required to rid the country of problems by adopting collective vision and efforts so that it could move further towards progress,” the chief minister stressed.

Separately, British Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy for Pakistan Rehman Chishti called on Shahbaz and discussed matters related to promoting Pakistan-UK relations and expansion in bilateral cooperation in different sectors.

Chishti praised the chief minister for his performance in the energy sector and the people-oriented policies. Shahbaz said Pakistan and the UK had cordial relations which were further enhanced during the tenure of the PML-N government. Different programmes for bringing improvements in social sector were working successfully in partnership with UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), he noted.

Also on Friday, the chief minister visited the residence of senior PML-N leader Chaudhry Ahmed Saeed in Gulberg and presented him a bouquet. As they discussed different issues of mutual interest and the political situation in the country, Shahbaz said the PML-N was pursuing the agenda of public welfare and national development.