report in The News online, Sept 21, 2023
LAHORE: Former prime minister Shehbaz Sharif rushed back to London merely after 48 hours to hold “important consultations” with his elder brother and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif, sources told Geo News Thursday.
The party’s chief organiser Maryam Nawaz has also left for the UK capital where she is expected to stay for a week.
“Shehbaz Sharif is coming back to London with an important message for Nawaz Sharif,” a trusted source, privy to the information, told the TV channel.
The source added that Nawaz, Maryam and Shehbaz will hold talks on the PML-N supremo’s return to Pakistan on October 21.
“Nawaz Sharif’s return to Pakistan remains final, there is no change in plan,” the source also said.
Meanwhile, PML-N spokesperson and former information minister Marriyum Aurangzeb attempted to dispel the impression that Shehbaz is carrying some sort of message, saying Nawaz has called him for a meeting to hold “important consultations” without elaborating further on the purpose of the huddle.
“He will return soon,” she added.
Shehbaz had left London for Lahore on Monday night, after spending a month where he held meetings with Nawaz and other party members.
In London, he had revealed the date for his elder brother’s return to Pakistan ahead of the upcoming elections to lead the PML-N’s political campaign in the country.
“Nawaz Sharif will reach Pakistan on October 21,” Shehbaz had said back then.
The statement came after a meeting of the PML-N’s top leadership headed by Nawaz in London.
After Geo News broke the return date of Nawaz, Shehbaz made the announcement in a press conference alongside his brother, Khawaja Asif, Malik Muhammad Ahmed, Chaudhary Tanvir Khan and Barrister Danyal.
While speaking to the media after the high-level party huddle in London, Shehbaz said that the date for Nawaz’s return was finalised after consultation with the party members.
He added that the credit for Pakistan’s attainment of nukes, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the ending 20 hours of electricity load-shedding in the country “goes to Nawaz”.
“Nawaz returned with thanks the package which was offered to him for not making Pakistan a nuclear power, saying that Pakistan’s interest was much more than $5 billion,” Shehbaz further said.
Shehbaz said: “If the momentum of Pakistan’s progress in the industrial and other sectors during the period from 2013 to 2018 hadn’t broken with the flawed elections of 2018, the country would have been much ahead in the field of development. The journey of development will continue from where Nawaz had left in 2017 when he was removed from power under a false and baseless case. Nawaz wasn’t deprived of power but Pakistan’s people were deprived of development and prosperity.”
https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/1112002-shehbaz-departs-for-london-to-hold-important-consultations-with-nawaz
