• PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari expedites efforts to bring in-house change in Punjab, Centre.
• Renewed efforts underway with ‘mutual but influential’ help of friends to win PML-N’s support for “power politics”.
• PML-N not responding to PDM parties’ demands to provide date for long march.

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ISLAMABAD: PPP co-chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari has expedited his efforts to bring an in-house change in Punjab and the Centre, well-placed sources told The News.

The renewed efforts continue with the help of “co-operative but influential” allies to gain PML-N support for “power politics”.

Some PML-N members backed the proposals proposed by “participant friends”, but sources said they had not yet received a response from the party leadership.

“These proposals are not new and are completely rejected by the PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif many times in the past,” sources told The News. “We are now forced to at least consider these proposals before making any decision on them.”

Sources said the PML-N leadership was also reluctant to comply with the request of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) parties to announce a long march aimed at targeting the government.

Asif Zardari to meet Chaudhry brothers

Sources said former president Asif Ali Zardari decided to stay in Lahore for three days when he planned to inquire about the health of senior politician Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain.

“Asif Ali Zardari will also hold an important meeting with Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi to discuss the political situation in Punjab and to add resources.

“The presence of Asif Ali Zardari in Lahore at this time holds importance for those quarters who are trying to bridge gaps between the PML-N and the PPP.”

Sources say that efforts are being made to bring the PPP back to the PDM structures, adding that he sees something in the opposition parties that the government benefits from divisions within them.

However, well-placed sources tell News that it will be difficult for the PPP and PML-N to fully trust each other as both sides blame each other for the PDM split earlier this year.

Both parties are also skeptical of each other’s conduct because by the time the government succeeded in passing the NAB Amendment Bill, the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, Mushahid Hussain Syed, Azam Nazir Tarar and other prominent PML-N members were not present. in the upper house of Parliament.

“The PML-N also wants PPP to file its separate application in court against the NAB Amendment Bill because it thinks that they have a different viewpoint on some issues related to this legislation,” sources said.

PML-N preparing for general elections, say sources

PML-N sources, quoted in the report, said at a time when the party is receiving proposals for no-confidence motions, the PML-N (Punjab chapter) is busy preparing for the next general elections.

“The PML-N (Punjab chapter) has submitted a detailed report to Nawaz Sharif about its contacts with elected members of the ruling party in Punjab but it has not been allowed to give any kind of assurances regarding the next general elections,” sources said.

However, senior members of the party also put pressure on the PML-N leadership to come up with a clear strategy, especially with regard to these proposals, ahead of an upcoming public meeting in Lahore, which, according to them, will determine the future course. they say the action of the opposition parties.

When contacted, former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi told The News: “We are very clear about our political concepts and we think that free and fair elections are the only solution to the growing mess. We do not believe in no-confidence motions because they cannot be passed without support from the powerful quarters.”

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said the PML-N did not want the support of undemocratic forces to have no-confidence motions passed.

“We will continue our struggle for fresh general elections in the country,” he stated. To a question, the former prime minister of Pakistan said, “There are claims that the establishment will stay neutral in politics but it should be visible on the ground otherwise no one can believe it.”