LAHORE: Making his first public appearance since his homecoming over two weeks ago, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz President Shahbaz Sharif ventured out of his Model Town residence and visited his constituency on the outskirts of the Punjab capital on Friday.

He also gave audience to Khwaja Brothers, Saad Rafiq and Salman Rafiq, during his brief visit of the area.

Mr Sharif, who had returned from London after over four months on March 22 “to take part in the fight against Covid-19”, has been in quarantine since then and contacting with the outside world, both within and outside the party, through online.

He chaired a multi-party conference as well as a couple of PML-N meetings through video-link during this self-imposed quarantine.

Ending this isolation, he visited some parts of his constituency (NA-132) and held a meeting with notables of the area at Natha Singh. Punjab chapter general secretary Attaullah Tarar was prominent among them.

A photograph released of the event shows him wearing mask and gloves while others are sporting only masks. The rule of social distancing was also followed by placing chairs at a reasonable gap from each other and those standing are also keeping a fair space from each other.

He directed the MPs as well as local body representatives and party office-bearers to enthusiastically take part in relief activities, particularly distribution of ration among the coronavirus-hit people.

He said the needy people should be identified at union council level so that the relief aid may reach the deserving masses.

The PML-N president also visited the residence of MNA Khwaja Saad Rafiq and MPA Khwaja Salman Rafiq in Defence and lauded their steadfastness with the party ideology despite testing times.

He said the two brothers also worked hard to efficiently their respective department (railways by Saad and Punjab health dept by Salman).

Published in Dawn, April 11th, 2020