LAHORE - Former minister Zaeem Hussain Qadri is no more harsh on the PML-N after his wife took oath as MPA of this party elected on reserved seat, 70 days after the general polls were held.

Qadri who had parted ways with the PML-N about a month before the July 25 election, is still not minded to rejoin his parental party yet he has quite sympathetic feeling and views over the custody of Shehbaz Sharif with NAB. Qadri, at the moment is mostly speaking through electronic media unlike the past when as PML-N minister and the spokesman he was quite open and frank while talking to media and friends.

This change might have come long after the election time was over, but the revelation of the same has been observed after Uzma took oath  on 4th. She was previously asked to explain her position to the party leadership on not taking oath when the party needed vote for speaker, deputy speaker and leader of house.

The feathers of Qadri were ruffled before the elections when he was denied ticket for National Assembly constituency NA-133 Lahore by the party leadership. The party decision stung him so badly that he openly criticised Hamza Shehbaz who, he believed, had factored refusal to the ticket to him. Qadri who carried the record of rendering sacrifices for the party and facing every hardship during the Musharraf regime, was so furious over ignoring his past services.  He had announced  his own group of the like-minded. The PML-N through senior members tried to woo him but to no avail.

At a time when his chagrin was at peak, party president Shehbaz Sharif had dropped the hint of personally meeting and removing his reservations. Qadri in talk to this scribe said he was still waiting for Shehbaz to visit him. He said his decision is open to review if the party president will reach him.  He was highly critical of the PTI, particularly on the presentation of the budget which he added, will kill the poor. He also did not find anything in the PTI whereof it could deliver even ‘100-years’.

When asked about his wife taking oath of the PML-N when you stood aloof from the party, he said, she had right to decide about herself in politics. My spouse gave 25 years to the PML-N and she had the right to retain her affiliation with the party. Zaeem Qadri spilled an important point when he sided with Shehbaz Sharif on NAB cases against him. He expressed deep pain over treatment being meted out to the PML-N President and said, his prayers were for him. Qadri by no means, expressed anger against the PML-N and the leadership but showed sympathies with Shehbaz Sharif and disapproved the NAB action against him.