Nawaz unlikely to attend APC

ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s participation in the planned All Parties’ Conference (APC) is doubtful with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) being not enthusiastic about the moot.

When contacted, two senior PML-N leaders, one senator and one MNA, who are privy to party policy, separately told The News that its delegation will, however, attend the APC.

One of them said when Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman met Nawaz Sharif sometime back, he discussed the proposal of convening the APC.

The former premier, according to the PML-N leader, agreed to the idea and sent a delegation comprising Shahbaz Sharif, Rana Sanaullah and others to Fazlur Rehman to talk about the proposal threadbare.

He said it was then agreed that the tension prevailing between Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) supremo Asif Ali Zardari and Shahbaz Sharif has to be significantly alleviated before the APC.

“The consensus formula to end confrontation was that first Bilawal will meet Shahbaz Sharif and then the latter will hold a session with Zardari,” the PML-N leader said adding that subsequently both Shahbaz Sharif and Zardari would take part in the APC.

Another proposal, he said, was that the APC should be held in a committee room of the parliamentary building during the National Assembly session, which will pave the way for attendance of incarcerated Shahbaz Sharif, who will be present in session after having been produced there on the speaker’s order.

The PML-N leader said if party president and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif was thus able to show up in the APC heading a delegation, there would be no need of Nawaz Sharif to turn up in these deliberations.

He said if this did not happen, Nawaz Sharif will not take part in the APC and instead a party delegation be sent to the moot.

“Since Nawaz Sharif is not publicly speaking and has refrained from active politics since the death of Begum Kulsoom because of the trauma caused by her demise, his participation in the APC doesn’t seem likely for this reason.”

The other PML-N leader said his party was yet to know and comprehend the objectives of the proposed APC.

“If Nawaz Sharif takes part in the APC where the PPP will also be, our fight against victimisation of our top leaders will be affected on the ground that the ‘accountability’ is targeted, biased and one-sided.”

It was amply reflected from the remarks of the PML-N stalwart that his party is very bitter about the PPP’s policy that it adopted when the “ruthless accountability” of the Sharifs has been done over the past two years, leading their imprisonment.

The PPP’s contribution, according to him, to this process has irked the PML-N too much.

“We have faced and will face the kind of accountability we have been subjected to,” the PML-N leader said. “When the heat has been piled up on Zardari, the PPP has suddenly started talking about cooperation with our party.”

There is a great trust deficit between the PML-N and PPP, which has the potential of hampering any greater unity between the two parties in the days to come.

In this connection, the PML-N also referred to the PPP stand in the election of the Senate chairman and prime minister when it had not voted for opposition candidate Shahbaz Sharif.

Another underlying element in the PML-N strategy, as per the PML-N leader, is that it wants to give time to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to deliver when it has already messed up too many things in just nine weeks.

He said that it was too early to launch any protest movement against the regime and added that the PML-N will keep agitating the government’s misadventures and exposing its fallacious policies and programmes.

He said the PML-N doesn’t want to take on its shoulders any failures of the government.

In view of the PML-N stance, there is a possibility that the APC may be somewhat delayed.