LAHORE, Nov 26: Punjab PML Secretary-General Chaudhry Zaheeruddin has taken serious notice of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s call to people that they should rise against ‘dictatorship’ without waiting for the return home of the PML-N and the PPP leaders, living out of the country for the past several years.

At a news conference at the Muslim League House on Sunday, Zaheeruddin said those instigating the people to work against the government would never succeed in their designs.

He said the ruling PML would win the next election and opposition parties would stand nowhere.

He disputed Mr Sharif’s reported claim that he had been forced to leave the country, saying had it been so the former prime minister would not have been allowed to take his luggage and personal servants with him.

Agricultural Marketing Minister Rana Qasim Noon was critical of the appointment of Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi as the provincial president of the PPP.

He said after his induction, many PPP leaders had established contact with the ruling party with the request to join it.