RIYADH: Former MNA and PIA chairman Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who enjoyed the camaraderie of Mian Sahib while they were both interned during the famous hijacking case, is here. Also, former finance minister Ishaq Dar, former PML MNAs Shahid Mehdi Naseem and Begum Mahmooda, as well as Majeed Nizami of Nawa-i- Waqt, are here.

With the October election drawing nearer, these PML(N) leaders are holding discussions on the emerging political scenario and the role of Nawaz Sharif and his family, if any, in the future political setup of Pakistan.

Earlier last week another former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, had arrived here from Dubai, giving rise to speculations in a section of the press in Pakistan that she also met Nawaz Sharif to discuss a common political strategy to be adopted in view of the stance the military government has taken vis-a-vis the two leaders. But both Mian Sahib and the PPP sources denied any such meeting taking place in Makkah or Jeddah during Ms Bhutto’s stay in the kingdom.

Although the PML(N) leaders are said to be here for Umra and prayers at the Prophet’s mosque in Madina, there is more to the visits.

Talking to Dawn Shahid Abbasi, who has had a long meeting with Mian Sahib, both in Jeddah and in Makkah, denied that any decision to appoint Raja Zafarul Haque as leader of the PML(N) had been taken by the party leadership. “The situation is in flux. Even Mian Sahib has denied this news. We are yet to make any decision on the issue of the PML leadership. All stories about Mian Sahib relinquishing the leadership to any one are speculation yet. Even the mention of Shahbaz Sharif’s name in this regard was again an iota of imagination,” Shahid Abbasi said.

He emphasized if the leaders of the two largest parties were barred from taking part in the election, even then their influence on Pakistan’s politics could not be ended. “No one can eliminate that. Whether one likes it or not, the fact remains that Mian Sahib and BB are the two leading stalwarts of Pakistan’s politics. No one can argue this fact,” he asserted.

While referring to the deal between the government and the Sharif family, resulting in their exile to Saudi Arabia, he said he did not have any information about this. “You should better ask Mian Sahib this question.” However, he emphasized that the Sharif family struck the deal, if any, when the overall situation was already improving for them. Main Sahib was not handed down an execution punishment by the trial court as some had believed earlier and there was definitely a sigh of relief in the camp, Shahid Abbasi reminisced of the times when he was in the prison with Mian Sahib.

When told that an impression existed in many quarters that by striking a deal, Mian Sahib, the business tycoon, instead of standing up to the pressures and hardships and insisting on continuing to struggle for the democratic rights of Pakistan, had rather opted to save his and the family’s skin, Shahid Abbasi said those were difficult days. “What the deal was no one really knows.”

In fact, Ms Bhutto’s departure from Pakistan, leaving behind her husband Asif Zardari in prison, was a part of the deal she had struck with then PML government. “It was on the basis of the deal with the PML government that BB was allowed to leave Pakistan,” he said, adding that he had the details of the deal between the then PML government and Ms Bhutto from a member of the three-man PML committee that had negotiated the deal between the two parties.