LONDON: PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif said on Friday that he had arrived in London to participate in a party meeting to discuss “legal and administrative” matters, emphasising that decisions regarding all the issues had been taken.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Shehbaz conveyed that he had arrived in the city on the di-rectives of the party supremo and his brother, Nawaz Sharif, to participate in the party huddle. Shehbaz headed back to London on Thursday merely 48 hours after he returned to the country from the UK, sparking surprise among several quarters.
The former prime minister had left London earlier in the week after spending several weeks there, but upon reaching Lahore, made a sudden plan to return in order to have a face-to-face meeting with his elder brother.
The former premier’s return to London came as a surprise to many. The party chief had already spent nearly a month in London for his medical check-ups, as well as holding discussions with his elder broth-er.
It was Shahbaz who, flanked by Nawaz, told reporters outside Stanhope House that the elder Sharif is set to return to Pakistan on October 21. His visit coincided with the London trip of party vice-president Maryam Nawaz, who also landed in London just before her uncle arrived, on a separate flight.
Reporters were told that the former PM returned to discuss important matters with his elder brother, adding that there were “important discussions regarding the return of Nawaz” that were due to take place.
However, during his talk with reporters in London yesterday, Shehbaz chose not to delve into the spe-cifics of the meeting. Instead, he mentioned that his elder brother was returning to the country to “pick up the threads of development progress from where he had left off in 2018 after his mandate was snatched.”
He stated that the alleged destruction of the four years of development starting from 2013 had seem-ingly occurred overnight, and he emphasised that “such an example is not evident elsewhere.”
Shehbaz pointed out that Nawaz had made a commitment in 2013 to resolve the load shedding crisis, a promise he fulfilled. He further claimed that Nawaz aimed to steer the country once again toward the path of progress.
He also emphasised that Nawaz’s return aimed to put an end to the “trend of hatred and disrespect” that, according to him, was allegedly propagated among the youth by former premier Imran Khan.
In recent weeks, PML-N leaders Mohammad Zubair, Abid Sher Ali and Khawaja Asif have all met Na-waz in London, and conveyed their messages surrounding the plan for his return. –Agencies
