Nawaz-Shahbaz long meeting fuels speculations

LAHORE: An unscheduled long meeting took place between Mian Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif-led delegation of Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) at the Kot Lakhpat Jail Monday.

Top PML-N leaders say the party president briefed Nawaz Sharif about Sunday’s consultations with the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief about launching a protest movement against the PTI government. The party leadership had been given green signal by Nawaz Sharif for fully supporting the lockdown, announced by Maulana Fazlur Rehman, against the PTI government. Nawaz Sharif directed Shahbaz Sharif to fully support and participate in the opposition’s protest, being dubbed as ‘Azadi March’ against the government, the party leaders added. A task has been given to Ahsan Iqbal to also persuade Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) to join the opposition show, said the party leaders.

Nawaz Sharif also discussed several issues with the party president. Besides Ahsan Iqbal, Khwaja Asif, Azam Nazir Tarar, Amjad Pervaiz and Khwaja Haris also attended the meeting.

As the Sharif family members and the PML-N leaders usually meet Nawaz Sharif on Thursdays only, Monday’s unscheduled meeting between the top party leaders and the PML-N supremo set the rumour mill churning out speculations. According to sources, the meeting was allowed at the eleventh hour by the Ministry of Interior, which continued for several hours. Mian Nawaz Sharif’s legal team was also part of the PML-N delegation, and later on remained there for over an hour. Nawaz met his party leaders for over three hours.

However, senior party leaders dispelled the impression of any settlement with the ruling party regarding release of Nawaz Sharif. It is still interesting to note that PML-N Secretary General Ahsan Iqbal did not directly comment on the rumours about a possible deal, while sharing his views at the social media site. However, he hastened to add that legal team of Nawaz Sharif also joined the visiting delegation for reviewing various aspects of an appeal in Islamabad High Court, which is due to be heard on Sept 18. He was responding to a post in which astonishment was expressed over the fact that how the government permitted such a large gathering of the party leaders at the jail when even the family doctor was not permitted to meet the ailing former premier. The fact that the opposition parties are also preparing to launch a full-fledged protest campaign against the government in about a month’s time is also contrary to the permission granted for the meeting. In another post, Ahsan categorically said that his party would not compromise (on principles) and pardon the incumbent government. He said Imran Khan would have to be answerable for, what he called, negatively impacting the whole economy.

Sources said Shahbaz apparently was not fully convinced to go ahead with the demonstration plans to oust the government in near future. He reportedly asked his elder brother to reconsider launching of a campaign against the ruling party, saying this would be a decisive action by the opposition. However, Nawaz Sharif insisted that full-scale drive must be launched against the regime, added the sources.

According to the party leaders, the PML-N president floated the idea of rescheduling the sit-in, keeping in view prevalent situation of the country. But again, Nawaz Sharif stressed that every possible effort should be made to save the national institutions.

Political observers termed Monday’s meeting a significant development as the PTI government allowed Shahbaz Sharif to meet Nawaz in the prison just after less than 24 hours of the JUI-F’s latest push for ousting the government by force.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that Shahbaz Sharif also met Hamza Shahbaz in Kot Lakhpat jail before holding a meeting with Nawaz Sharif.