LAHORE: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) will delay its formal commitment on any likely joint opposition’s move to be decided at the Iftar dinner thrown by Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari in Islamabad on Sunday.

“Whatever decision is taken by the joint opposition at the Iftar dinner will be shared with (incarcerated) leader Nawaz Sharif and party president Shahbaz Sharif before committing anything on it,” says Opposition Leader in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shahbaz.

Speaking to the media before leaving for Islamabad to attend the Iftar dinner earlier in the day here, he told a questioner that political matters would definitely come under discussion at the meeting.

A six-member delegation of the PML-N is attending the Iftar on Mr Bilawal’s invitation. They included senior vice-president Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, vice-president Maryam Nawaz, Hamza Shahbaz, former National Assembly speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, central information secretary Marriyum Aurangzeb and ex-minister Pervaiz Rashid.

The PPP leadership has already hinted at launching an anti-government drive after Eidul Fitr.

Criticising the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government for the rapid increase in prices of daily-use items, Hamza said Prime Minister Imran Niazi had failed to run the affairs of the country and the “incompetent” government unleashed inflation on the masses. He said the opposition would surely raise its voice over the miseries the poor were facing.

Punjab PML-N Information Secretary Azma Zahid Bukhari, meanwhile, says the opposition parties are uniting against “undemocratic” thinking.

In a statement, she said the opposition leadership was defamed by calling them thieves and robbers without proving any charge whereas there were NAB-tainted elements sitting in the federal and Punjab cabinets. She said those who had promised 10 million jobs and five million housing units had led the country to the brink of bankruptcy.

She said the masses would no longer tolerate the “bogus” governance system as countdown had begun for the government standing on crutches.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2019