LAHORE: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi called on ousted premier Nawaz Sharif at his Jati Umra residence here on Tuesday and reportedly discussed with him the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s post-Senate elections strategy.

A senior PML-N leader told Dawn that Mr Abbasi’s meeting with the former prime minister was significant as Mr Sharif has called a meeting of the PML-N’s allies — Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party and National Party — here on Wednesday (today) to take them on board in making a final strategy in this regard. He added that they would see whether the PML-N and its allies were in a position to clinch the top Senate post.

“The PML-N, in consultation with its allies, may finalise its candidates for the chairman and deputy chairman,” he said, adding that apart from its allies, the PML-N needed the support of a few more senators to get 53 votes to win both slots.

Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah had earlier said that the PML-N was confident about getting the Senate chairperson’s seat because it had 34 members in the upper house of parliament, and a total of 48 seats, including its allies. “If the MQM agrees to come with us and gives us its five votes, we will easily win the Senate chairman slot,” he said.

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2018