Kh Saad Rafique gets shut-up call from Kh Hassaan in court

LAHORE: Two stalwarts of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz tangled in a verbal brawl in the presence of party president Shahbaz Sharif in a NAB courtroom, here on Monday.

Sources said Khwaja Ahmed Hassaan, following an intra-party dispute pertaining to his alleged conspicuous absence from the party's hyper activities under the umbrella of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), reached the court to meet Shahbaz Sharif.

Sources said there was a growing concern among top party tiers involved in the organisational matters for meeting the high-rev political activity during the last couple of months. Since the party needed an extra effort for a cold-start, it had to even call the reserves. With a huge task looming, the party needed every foot on the ground. Sources said senior party leader and former mayor Khwaja Hassaan could not pool in his part of the workload, the party ranks had strong reservations for the former mayor, who had a high political utility as far as Lahore is concerned.

Sources said Khwaja Saad Rafique highlighted the absence of Khwaja Ahmed Hassaan in party meetings because he was concerned and his views also reached Hassaan in another way.

Sources said that in the courtroom, Khwaja Ahmed Hassaan was talking with Shahbaz Sharif and explaining him why he was not active in the recent party activities when Khwaja Saad Rafique intercepted him and asked him to stop talking on the issue as that was not the place to discuss such topics.

Sources said Khwaja Ahmed Hassaan continued his talk on which Khwaja Saad again intercepted him but he ignored him, and the third time when Khwaja Saad tried to stop him, Khwaja Ahmed Hassaan got angry and gave Khwaja Saad a shut-up call. After that, Shahbaz Sharif stood up from his seat and stopped both the party leaders to remain calm and quite.