LAHORE    -    In a desperate move to save Hamza Shehbaz Sharif, the PPP-P pres­ident Asif Ali Zardari Thursday went to see Ch Shujat Hussain at the latter’s residence for the second time in the last two days.

Reportedly, he tried to convince Ch Shujat to direct at least four of his party MPAs to abstain from voting in today’s election as had been the case for the voting on the no-confidence motion against the PM when two of the PML-Q MNAs supported the PML-N and allied par­ties while three voted in favor of Imran Khan.

There was complete silence from the two sides about the out­come of this important meeting. But today’s election results might reveal if the meeting was successful or not. In a related news, the PPP-P president Asif Ali Zardari chaired a meeting of the par­ty’s Punjab Parliamentary party and declared support for Hamza Shehbaz Shar­if. He told the party legisla­tors that it was after seek­ing Ch Shujat’s consent that he had convinced the Shar­ifs to nominate Ch Parvez Elahi as the chief minister. He also refuted allegations of spending money to en­sure the success of Hamza Shehbaz Sharif. “Why would I spend money over Hamza Shehbaz? But yes, I would have spent millions if Has­san Murtaza had been our candidate”, Asif Zardari re­portedly told party men