LAHORE, March 14: PML-N leader Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has said he is willing to attend a multi-party conference on the Charter of Democracy if called by Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani.

He was talking to local editors and columnists here on Saturday.

When asked where the movement was headed after the long march, Mr Sharif said: “The people will determine this.”
The former prime minister also chose to couch his reply in ambiguity when asked if it was still possible for the PML-N and President Asif Ali Zardari to strike a rapprochement. Typically, he asked for guidance from the people he was speaking to, instead of discussing any way out of the present mess that he and his party might have pondered over.

“Then we can talk about it after the long march,” Mr Sharif said when a journalist complained that the time for reconciliation was running out.

When another journalist described some recent efforts by the Army to mediate between politicians as an anathema to the Charter of Democracy and ‘death of CoD’, Mr Sharif said had the other side (the PPP) “behaved responsibly” there wouldn’t have been a reason for anyone to mediate now.

Mr Sharif, however, made it clear that no one from the government’s side had approached him or his party with any offer so far.

ADDRESS TO WORKERS: Later, speaking to a gathering of his supporters and PML-N workers outside his Model Town residence, Mr Nawaz said winds of change had started blowing and no one can stop them now.

“The flood of people would bury the outdated and exploitative system on March 16 as Pakistan has changed, and changed for ever,” he said.

Mr Sharif said that long march was not personal but a national cause and no offer, however tempting, could stop the PML-N from supporting the long march.

“The workers will cross every hurdle to reach Islamabad, and if they could not overcome barriers put up by the state machinery, they will stage sit-ins at every hurdle.
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