LAHORE: PML-N Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed on Wednesday said there were three frontrunners – Shahbaz Sharif, Imran Khan and Asif Zardari – for the office of prime minister, but added that all independent scientific surveys showed the PMLN enjoying a stronger position than the rivals going into the general elections.
In an informal chat at an Iftar dinner with reporters, Mushahid, PML-N Spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb and Senator Pervaiz Rashid discussed their party’s position and took feedback from the journalists regarding how best to conduct the media management for the coming elections. Mushahid said be it the surveys conducted by PILDAT and Gallup, the Wall Street Journal or the local media reports, everyone indicated that the PML-N was very strongly placed in the elections because of the past performance and the people’s trust in the party leadership. He said the PML-N wanted that the elections were held on time as a smooth transfer of power and continuation of democracy was in the best national interest.
Mushahid chose not to comment on Reham Khan’s book and said any question about that should be addressed to Imran Khan and Reham. He said the general perception was that the cases against the PML-N leadership would have an annihilating effect and would disintegrate the party, but it didn’t happen and instead the PML-N came together even stronger sans the seasonal political-swingers.
Responding to a question regarding the party ticket for Chaudhry Nisar, he said those who applied and showed up for interview would be considered, however, he could not recall seeing the application of Nisar.
He said all national institutions and political parties wanted the elections to be held on time. Mushahid said the decisions in the cases of Khawaja Asif and Sheikh Rasheed were an interesting development and it would be too soon to speculate that Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz would jailed.
Marriyum said the exclusively special treatment extended to Pervaiz Musharraf – a dictator and a violator of the Constitution – and Zulfi Bukhari were being noted by the people who had a very acute political acumen and won’t let these things just pass by. She said the Sharif family would stay in the UK and return on the fourth day of Eid.
Pervaiz Rashid said if the PML-N government was responsible for the safe exit of Pervez Musharraf, why he did keep on thanking Gen (Retd) Raheel Sharif only in all his interviews after absconding. He predicted that Musharraf would not return to the country any time soon.
