Lahore: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif met senior party leaders on Saturday to discuss a strategy for countering groupings within the party.
In a meeting with National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique and Chaudhry Muneer at his Jati Umra residence, Sharif expressed concerns over reports of groupings within the party ranks.
The party leaders have decided to launch a mass public contact campaign for the 2018 general elections starting with a rally in Abbottabad on November 12.
The schedule for future election rallies will be announced after the Abbottabad rally.
The PML-N is currently facing political uncertainty in the wake of corruption references against its top leadership.
The meeting took place amid reports that the government was planning to put up for vote a controversial constitutional amendment bill in the National Assembly that proposes the right to appeal against an order of the Supreme Court passed in a suo motu notice case.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has reacted strongly to the move, describing it as a bid to ease pressure on Sharif.
Nawaz Sharif has also denied any deal with the establishment for his return and also dismissed the possibility of a technocratic government in the country.
Sharif said that after the November 3, 2007 emergency he stood for the cause of independence of the judiciary. “I am not the supporter of a judiciary which welcomes dictators, endorses doctrine of necessity and garlands them.” Sharif said, Dawn reported.
He said he would not go for any deal or accept a new National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) to escape trial, adding that those who had sought the NRO in 2007 might seek another one in 2017, but the PML-N was not interested in any such deal.
The NRO was promulgated after a deal between then military ruler Gen Musharraf and the Pakistan Peoples Party.
