LAHORE– As last ditch effort to propitiate angry PML(N) senior vice president Javed Hashmi from going to the side of PTI, Nawaz Sharif and top party members were due to meet him in the morning on Saturday but Hashmi left for Karachi from Multan before the schedule time of meeting at 11am.
Sources said that Javed Hashmi had left for the airport at 8am last day when the PML(N) leaders were preparing to depart to him to persuade the old leader of the party against joining the party.
Sources further say that a PML(N) team had a five-hour meeting with Hashmi at the residence of Khwaja Saad Rafiq on Friday evening to agree him on taking back his decision but they failed. Hashmi left for Multan the same evening despite efforts by the N-leaders to stop him.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Muslim League-N leader Ahsan Iqbal Saturday said the world establishment turned against Mian Nawaz Sharif on declining to dance to their tunes.
Addressing a ceremony at Engineering University Lahore, he said the 180 million people will safeguard Nawaz Sharif as the international establishment is opposed to him for refusing to take dictation from it. Meanwhile, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz spokesman Pervaiz Rasheed said here on Saturday that Makhdoom Javed Hashmi’s step to join Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf was disappointing.
According to the report, Pervaiz Rasheed said a meeting with Hashmi was due at 7am today in Multan but some forces did not let it happen. Rasheed said that PML-N and Javed Hasmi have shared a historic association and have faced thick and thin together. He said that his step to join PTI is disheartening.
Meanwhile, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Saturday blamed ‘establishment’s stooges’ for PML-N leader Javed Hashm’s resignation.
Sanaullah accused former senator Tariq Chaudhry of acting on behalf of the establishment who had been staying at Hashmi residence in Multan for few days and convinced him to quit the PML-N.
He said Hashmi was unhappy after the party leadership did not make him parliamentary leader in the National Assembly. “Hashmi decision is madness,” the provincial minister said.
Rana Sanaullah said Hashmi would not be able to garner affection like that found in the PML-N. “Javed Hashmi’s decision to join the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf was madness”, he said. He said that Hashmi left the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz due to personal differences. He said that the PML-N will continue its journey. The law minister paid homage to Hashmi for his struggle.
Another PML-Leader Senator Pervez Rashid said that he was saddened over Hashmi’s decision and it broke hearts. The trivialities are to be put up with in the large parties; otherwise, these parties cannot go along, he asserted adding his (Hashmi’s) decision is ‘insanity’. Javed Hashmi is a great leader; but, he is a bit emotional, he added.