Kh Asif says can revive Nawaz, Zardari contact

• Minister believes PPP co-chairman may agree to revive dialogue with PML-N
• PPP refuses to assist PML-N in making constitutional amendments
• Zardari, Bilawal jointly chair meetings with party leaders in Lahore

Minister for Foreign Affairs Khawaja Muhammad Asif has said that if he is instructed by the party’s high command, he can revive contact between Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) leader Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari.

Speaking to a private TV channel, he said that he was certain that Asif Zardari would agree to revive dialogue with the PML-N leadership. “Yes, if I am instructed by Nawaz Sharif, I can play a role to revive dialogue,” he said. “I am a political worker. Politics is the name of possibilities. Doors are not kept shut forever,” he added.

However, PPP spokesperson Senator Farhatullah Babar dispelled the impression that Asif Zardari and party’s Chairman Bilawal Bhutto’s presence in Lahore was aimed at meeting with Nawaz Sharif, the former prime minister.

Commenting on media reports, he said that PPP’s policy has already been articulated by Bilawal Bhutto at his press talk in Islamabad and in a public meeting in Chiniot. As it appears, PPP seems to be in no mood to support the ruling party in making any amendments in the constitution or to engage with it in the grand national dialogue that Nawaz Sharif was continuously talking about since his ouster from the office.

Nawaz Sharif continued his rhetoric of ‘grand national dialogue’ throughout his recent GT Road rally and also gave reference to Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani’s statement, in which the latter talks about an intra-institutional dialogue to avoid any confrontation between the state institutions.

On Tuesday, Zardari reached Lahore and it was being speculated that the PPP co-chairman arrived in Lahore to meet Nawaz Sharif and he may also lend PPP’s support to the PML-N leadership for the sake of democracy. The rumours were further strengthened when Bilawal Bhutto also reached Lahore on Wednesday – the day after Zardari landed from Dubai.

Both Zardari and Bilawal chaired meetings at Lahore’s Bilawal House, in which all the party’s Punjab leadership – including Qamar Zaman Kaira, Nadeem Afzal Chan, Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar and Shaukat Basra – was present. It was decided that PPP would not support Nawaz Sharif’s demand of making amendments in the constitution.

Zardari said that he has had no contact with Nawaz Sharif and has no plans to meet him in future. According to Zardari, Nawaz’s priorities drastically change when he gets in trouble as compared to when he rules the country. He asked Nawaz that why he did not remember to amend the Article 62 and 63 when he was the prime minister.

He further said that there was no danger to democracy right now; the only danger was to Nawaz Sharif’s politics. He was of the view that the PPP’s recent public gathering in Chiniot was enough to respond opponents, who used to claim that PPP has been routed out from Punjab. He also said that Bilawal’s presence in Punjab would definitely improve the PPP’s popularity.

It is pertinent to mention here that it was Zardari who helped Nawaz Sharif’s government when it was facing crisis in August 2014, when both Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri were staging their sit-ins in Islamabad outside the PM Office. At that time, Zardari met with Nawaz Sharif at his Jati Umra residence in Lahore and vowed to safeguard the parliament and democracy.

But this time, Zardari has ruled out any possibility to lend support to Nawaz Sharif. Shaukat Basra, who was present in the meeting, told Pakistan Today that PPP was adhered to the statement of Bilawal in which he said that this time they would even not attend Nawaz Sharif’s phone call. “There is no meeting planned with Nawaz Sharif during Zardari sahib’s stay in Lahore and PPP will never support him in amending the constitution,” he said.

POLITICAL SITUATION: Bilawal Bhutto, who came from Karachi to Lahore, held meeting with Asif Zardari and discussed the political situation prevailing in the country on Wednesday. The former president instructed the party’s office bearers to chalk out a strategy for the by-election in NA 120 and vigorously campaign for the party’s candidate.