PML-N meeting likely to be postponed -DAWN - Top Stories; 18 April, 2004


18 April 2004	Sunday	27 Safar 1425

PML-N meeting likely to be postponed
By Our Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD, April 17: A meeting of the Pakistan Muslim League- N, scheduled to be held in London on Sunday (today), is likely to be postponed because of the late departure of several important party leaders , sources said here on Saturday.

PML-N president Mian Shahbaz Sharif has convened the meeting of the party's central leaders and office-bearers of all the four provinces in London after the April 7 judgment of the Supreme Court (SC) allowing him to return to the country to face charges against him.

The meeting, sources said, had been convened to set a timeframe for the return of Shahbaz Sharif to the country. Besides this, the meeting would also discuss the party's future strategy after conviction of acting party president Makhdoom Javed Hashmi in a sedition case, they said.

Sources said that there was a possibility that the wife and daughters of Shahbaz Sharif would be asked to land in Pakistan first to see the government's response.

Acting president of the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) and acting parliamentary leader of the PML-N Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, party's parliamentary leader in the Senate Ishaq Dar, MNA Khwaja Asif, PML-N Punjab president Sardar Zulfiqar Khoso and vice-president Pir Binyamin have already reached London.

The remaining party leaders were expected to reach London on Saturday, but some of them could not get visa stamped on their passports.

The secretary-general of the PML-N, NWFP chapter, Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, said that he was going to London with two senior members Syed Zafar Ali Shah and MNA Khawaja Saad Rafiq on Sunday. He said the meeting had been postponed only for few days and it would be held as soon as all the participants would reach London.

In response to a question, Mr Jhagra said there was a possibility that the PML-N leaders would also visit Jeddah to meet former prime minister Nawaz Sharif after the London meeting. Mr Jhagra, who is also the ARD secretary general, said Tehmina Daultana would represent the PML-N in the alliance meeting in Quetta on Sunday.