LAHORE - The top leadership of the PML-N is meeting on Sunday to discuss the deteriorating economic situation despite the $6billion bailout given by the IMF and the amnesty scheme announced by the PTI-led government. The future course of action will also come under discussion.
Senator Pervaiz Rashid, who was among the leaders who met their incarcerated party supremo Nawaz Sharif at Kot Lakhpat Jail on Thursday, said while talking to The Nation that former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi would chair the meeting, his first after being designated as party’s senior vice-president.
Many of those who met their leader in jail said the price hike has become unbearable for the common man and the party should stand by such people or they would lose their confidence.
The three-time former prime minister has been quoted as saying on the occasion that it was regrettable that despite the IMF loan and the government’s amnesty scheme the stock market had not responded positively and dollar was rapidly going up.
This, he said, manifested that the situation was going to be worse in the days ahead. Maryam Nawaz, Hamza Shehbaz, Khwaja Asif, Ahsan Iqbal and many others were also among those who called on the former prime minister.
Answering a question about former president Asif Zardari’s call for launching protest after Eid, Senator Pervaiz Rashid said before giving its point of view the party would like to ask the PPP leader about the mode of protest, its likely outcome, charter of demands and who would they be addressed to. Also, he said, his party would like to know what the PPP would demand for people.
He made it clear that the PML-N wanted continuity of the democratic system at any cost.
When reminded that even Mr Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had said in a recent interview that fresh elections were the only way to steer the country out of the prevailing economic mess, the former information minister said although some people individually believed that people should be approached afresh for a new mandate, the party had not so far given its opinion on the subject.
He said everyone knew that the July 2018 elections were not fair and the PTI had been brought to power in an equally wrong way, yet it had failed to deliver.
The PML-N leader said JUI-F leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman wanted to dislodge the government without delay. “But so far, no other party has supported this view,” Senator Pervaiz Rashid said.
About PML-N President Mian Shehbaz Sharif’s homecoming from London, Pervaiz Rashid said he would participate in the budget session of the National Assembly.
