LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Pervaiz Rashid on Thursday opposed rumours of anticipated return of Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan to the party, remarking that the former interior minister played a negative role during the previous term.
In an interview with veteran journalist, senior analyst and Pakistan Today Editor Arif Nizami, the PML-N leader said, “Nisar faced several disappointments in recent time, including the failure to secure two National Assembly seats during the 2018 general elections.”
“I will always oppose his [Nisar’s] return to the party,” Rashid responded when asked about the probability that Nisar will make a comeback as a PML-N member.
The PML-N senator claimed that the estranged party leader played the role of a “black sheep”.
When asked about his meeting with incarcerated former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, Rashid disclosed that a party worker from Faisalabad met the PML-N supremo. Rashid said, “The party worker recalled how Nawaz once met him in a Faisalabad jail. At this, Nawaz responded by saying ‘you are taking revenge from me’.”
“Nawaz said his government were in talks with Saudi Arabia regarding the agreements which are now being finalised by the PTI government,” Rashid said. “Nawaz was happy to know that those negotiations yielded good results.”
The former premier, the PML-N senator said, regretted that the PTI government had failed to inaugurate the Lahore-Multan motorway which had been “almost completed in our tenure”.
Responding to Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif’s release on bail, the PML-N lawmaker said Lahore High Court’s decision has exposed the hollowness of the cases being made against his party. Rashid said the federal government’s claims have been rejected by the verdict and there was no hurdle to hinder the progress of Public Accounts Committee under the chairmanship of Shehbaz.