SUKKUR: Veteran Pakistan People Party leader and former leader of the opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah on Monday rejected criticism of his meeting with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Marriyum Aurangzeb in the last week of September in jail, where he has been kept in connection with the ongoing NAB investigation into a mega corruption case.

Mr Shah was speaking to the media after getting his eyes checked at the Sukkur Civil Hospital.

He denied reports that he had been issued a show-cause notice by the top PPP leadership over his meeting with Ms Aurangzeb. The meeting was construed to be part of PML-N’s efforts to bring PPP back to the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM).

Mr Shah, replying to such a question, did not comment on any such effort, but argued that there was no harm in meeting leaders of any political rival. “Such meetings between political rivals are often held,” he said, and referred to a meeting between PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif when the latter was in jail in December last year. “And it was not my first meeting with Ms Aurangzeb, in fact it was a second,” he added.

Answering another question, Mr Shah said people had now fully realised that the PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf) government was not capable enough to address their issues and that they had chosen a wrong party to rule over them.

“The PTI government is raising prices of petroleum products and essential commodities without considering that how would the poor masses be able to make both ends meet,” he said.

Claiming that the country’s economy today was in a very bad shape, he apprehended that the value of US dollar might go up to Rs180 by December this year and could cross Rs200 the next year.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2021