PML-Q chief to meet Shahbaz Sharif
Pakistan's ruling PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain is expected to meet his rival, PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif.
By PTI |
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's ruling PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain is expected to meet his rival, PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif, in London to discuss modalities for the latter's return to the country ahead of the general election due by mid-January.
Hussain is currently in London for a medical check-up but sources in his Pakistan Muslim League-Qaid party said he had been "tasked with finalising the details" for the return to Pakistan of the brother of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, The News reported on Wednesday.
The sources said the government, and especially Hussain, wanted the PML-N's participation in the general election to give "credence to the already initiated national reconciliation process".
This process was set in motion by the National Reconciliation Ordinance issued by President Pervez Musharraf to grant amnesty to former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and other political leaders in graft cases registered between 1986 and 1999. However, Nawaz Sharif, who is currently in exile in Saudi Arabia, is not covered by the law.
Sources in the PML-N too confirmed the "top-level contacts" and the possibility of more such contacts in future. If these parleys bear fruit, Shahbaz Sharif would return to Pakistan in early November.
Hussain is currently in London for a medical check-up but sources in his Pakistan Muslim League-Qaid party said he had been "tasked with finalising the details" for the return to Pakistan of the brother of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, The News reported on Wednesday.
The sources said the government, and especially Hussain, wanted the PML-N's participation in the general election to give "credence to the already initiated national reconciliation process".
This process was set in motion by the National Reconciliation Ordinance issued by President Pervez Musharraf to grant amnesty to former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and other political leaders in graft cases registered between 1986 and 1999. However, Nawaz Sharif, who is currently in exile in Saudi Arabia, is not covered by the law.
Sources in the PML-N too confirmed the "top-level contacts" and the possibility of more such contacts in future. If these parleys bear fruit, Shahbaz Sharif would return to Pakistan in early November.
Nawaz Sharif was deported Saudi Arabia from Pakistan when he attempted to return to the country on September 10 after the Supreme Court allowed his homecoming.
President Pervez Musharraf, who came to power in 1999 by deposing Nawaz Sharif, has said that he cannot return to Pakistan for another three years as he had signed an agreement to go into exile in Saudi Arabia for 10 years.
The report said the reason for the contacts between the PML-Q and PML-N, which have been bitter rivals, is to give the PML-N a "relatively level playing field" in the general election following Bhutto's plan to return to Pakistan on October 18.
It quoted sources in the government as saying that there was also pressure from Saudi Arabia on Pakistan to give the Sharif brothers an opportunity to contest the polls. However, the government wanted a "slight delay" in the return of Nawaz Sharif.
Hussain is among the PML-Q leaders who is believed to have been opposed to the National Reconciliation Ordinance that was promulgated by Musharraf to pave the way for a power-sharing arrangement with Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party.
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