With details of the Nawaz-Zardari meeting still sketchy, it appears both leaders are ready to make a new beginning and perhaps looking to pick up from where they left before turning paths during the last Pakistan People’s Party-led government.
It was a one-on-one meeting between President Zardari and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of the reception held in honour of the Chinese premier at the Presidency on Wednesday.
As such, little is known on the content of the meeting. However, PML-N sources disclosed that Sharif assured Zardari he could freely continue as president for the remaining period of his term. He assured Zardari that the PML-N government would not indulge in tactics to disturb him, sources added.
It has been learnt that both leaders, for a large part of the meeting, exchanged grouses and complaints against each other.
“Nawaz had his own litany of complaints towards the PPP and vice versa,” sources said.
Nawaz Sharif, while sharing his thoughts after the meeting, said the PML-N government in future would honour the Charter of Democracy signed between the two parties. He added that he bore no grudge against President Zardari.
Political analysts believe it appears the bad blood that existed between the two sides, featuring Shahbaz Sharif making personal attacks against Zardari, has subsided for the time being.
PPP leaders on their part also indicated they had no plans to take on the new government head-on. PPP leader and former federal information minister Qamar Zaman Kaira, talking to media, said the new government should be given enough time to settle down.
There are also indications that the PPP would not pose any veritable threat to the PML-N government as the main opposition.
It is argued that the choice of Khurshid Shah as opposition leader reflected that the PPP would continue with its politics of reconciliation.
Chances of Shah becoming a strong opposition leader, mobilising his members to throw the government on the mat are low, political circles believe.
Sources in PML-N said they looked forward to the PPP as their future opposition more than Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
