LAHORE, June 4: The PPP has expressed serious reservations about Justice (retired) Malik Qayyum’s meeting with former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in Dubai, and party sources say the matter will be taken up with the PML-N chief.

Justice Qayyum was a member of the Lahore High Court bench which had convicted Ms Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari in a corruption case.

PPP sources allege that Ms Bhutto and her spouse had been convicted under instructions from the then government. They say that the tapes made public by the PPP had substantiated the PPP’s point of view.

Malik Qayyum had detailed discussions with Mr Sharif on a number of issues.

“Mr Sharif will return to Pakistan at an appropriate time,” Malik Qayyum, who is president of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) at present, told Dawn after the meeting.

He said the SCBA would file a petition for a court injunction that all exiled leaders, including Mian Nawaz Sharif, Mian Shahbaz Sharif, Benazir Bhutto and Altaf Husain, should be allowed to come back to Pakistan and take part in electoral process.

He said the government was free to try any leader if any case was pending against him or her. But, he said, it could not stop them from returning to their country.

PML-N Senator Ishaq Dar was also present at the meeting which discussed matters concerning elections and the Charter of Democracy (CoD).

Former president Rafiq Tarar had a separate meeting with Mr Sharif and exchanged views on the situation in the country. — ASHRAF MUMTAZ