Islamabad: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) are putting aside their differences in order to come up with a joint “anti-government strategy”, in the wake of a possible arrest of their respective leaders Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif.

According to sources, in their December 17 meeting at Parliament House, both Shahbaz Sharif and Zardari expressed concerns over the PTI government’s polices, particularly that of targeting its political rivals. They had resolved to fight back by mobilising a massive public campaign against Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government.

In the event that Nawaz Sharif and PPP co-chairman Zardari are arrested, the former’s nephew Hamza Shahbaz Sharif and the latter’s son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari would lead the masses and expose the government’s shortcomings, a senior PML-N leader told Gulf News here on Thursday.

Zardari is being investigated for fake accounts involving transactions worth billions of rupees and a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) constituted on Supreme Court orders to probe the matter is set to produce a report next week, that could result in his arrest. Anticipating this, the PPP high command has examined all options on turning this arrest into a high-profile political affair. Zardari even prefers to be arrested from Naudero rather than from Karachi, the sources further said.

On the other hand, the Accountability Court of Islamabad is also going to announce the verdict in Al Azizia and Flagship corruption references against Nawaz Sharif on December 24, Monday, amid wide speculation that Nawaz Sharif would return to Adiala Jail from the court instead of going to Jati Umra in Lahore.

The PML-N leader — who attended the last court hearing on Wednesday, which according to him was his 78th court appearance — showed confidence in the courts but his party spokesperson and leadership have expressed fears that they would be denied justice once again.

On Thursday, while presiding over a meeting of the PML-N parliamentary leaders in the Parliament House, Nawaz Sharif patiently listened to his party leaders’ suggestions in case of a possible arrest and the strategy the party should adopt if it happens.

A senior party leader present during the leaders’ meeting told Gulf News that among the decisions made were PML-N launching a series of countrywide protests and public rallies exposing the “failure” and “incompetence” of the present government. “No charges of corruption have so far been proved against Mian Nawaz Sharif and his family and they are being victimised by the present regime,” said the leader.

Former opposition Leader Khursheed Shah has also declared that Zardari and Faryal Talpur were investigated on “mere speculations” and that no corruption charges were proven against them.