ISLAMABAD, Jan 24: The Pakistan Muslim League-N leaders are busy in giving various justifications for the decision of party president Shahbaz Sharif of not meeting with PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari during his 48-hour stay in Dubai before departing for New York.

Parliamentary leader of the PML-N in the Senate Ishaq Dar, in a statement issued from London, said: "Despite desire Shahbaz- Benazir meeting could not be held because it was not pre- scheduled and also because Shahbaz Sharif was in transit."

Mr Dar said the original programme of Shahbaz Sharif was to go to the United States via London but he directly dashed to the US for want of British visa. Mr Dar said both leaders could meet any time in future. He stressed that both the PML-N and the PPP were ARD partners and had come closer than the past for realization of the ARD's objectives.

Mr Dar recalled that he himself had met Ms Bhutto at her residence in Dubai on December 25, last year, on behalf of Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif and discussed in detail the strategy for realization of ARD objectives as well as internal and external situation confronting Pakistan.

He disclosed that during Shahbaz Sharif's transit stay at Dubai, UAE Education Minister Sheikh Nahyan Al-Mubarik Al-Nahyan called on Shahbaz Sharif in his presence and discussed bilateral issues.

Meanwhile, the justification given by the party officially for Mr Sharif's decision of not meeting Ms Bhutto has further strengthened the impression among political circles in Islamabad that Shahbaz Sharif had intentionally avoided meeting with PPP leaders to give a positive gesture to the elements, busy in the efforts for reconciliation between the government and opposition parties.

It is strange that when the ARD and other opposition parties are planning to launch a decisive anti-government campaign and local leadership of the parties is busy in consultations, the heads of two major opposition parties did not even consider it important to have a meeting in Dubai.

A senior PPP leader, who showed his surprise over Mr Sharif's decision of not meeting Ms Bhutto and Mr Zardari despite having a good opportunity, said the PML-N people were saying that the meeting was not in Mr Sharif's schedule, but they were not telling that who had prepared the schedule for Shahbaz Sharif.

Obviously, he said, if Shahbaz Sharif had the desire to see Ms Bhutto, he should have included it in his schedule. Moreover, he said, transit did not mean that a person could not go out of the airport. If Shahbaz Sharif could spend time with the UAE education minister, then he could also get a few minutes to at least make a telephone call to Ms Bhutto.