PESHAWAR, May 17: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leaders and eight independent MPAs-elect held a meeting on Friday and discussed various issues concerning current political situation.

An insider pleading anonymity told Dawn that the independent members wished to get closer to the PML-N because they had no expectations to get any position in the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led provincial government.

Prominent among the independent members were Israrullah Gandapur, Amjad Afridi, Javaid Akbar and Qalandar Lodhi, while Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani held a separate meeting with the PML-N leaders.

It was learnt that the party leaders also held a separate meeting with Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan in the chair and reviewed the current political developments.

“We talked about the challenges and newly-formed coalition government in the province,” said the source who attended the meeting.

When contacted, PML-N provincial general secretary Rehmat Salam Khattak claimed that the independent members had come for discussion on some issues and they did not talk anything about formation of the government in the province.

“Formation of government is the PTI’s right and it has already met its target of required number of members,” he said. —Bureau Report