KARACHI: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) secretary general Ahsan Iqbal visited former leader of the opposition in the National Assembly and veteran Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah at his residence, congratulated him over his recent release from prison after over two years in a fresh cordial gesture between the two oppositions parties, it emerged on Tuesday.

The meeting took place hours after PML-N’s Punjab chapter vice president and Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz Sharif called Mr Shah to convey his wishes to him over his release.

The PPP leader, who had been behind bars since September 2019 in a National Accountability Bureau case concerning assets beyond means, was released after the Supreme Court granted him bail on October 21.

A PML-N leader said Mr Iqbal during his Karachi visit attended a ceremony, met different individuals as well as party leaders before finally deciding to call on Mr Shah at his DHA residence.

PML-N, PPP agree to continue their struggle for restoration of ‘true democracy’

“The two leaders spent an hour or two together, discussed several political issues and current state of affairs in the country,” PML-N’s Karachi division secretary Nasiruddin Mahmood said while speaking to Dawn.

“PML-N’s Sindh chief Syed Shah Mohammad Shah was also there in the meeting. We believe that despite toeing different lines of struggle, the political forces agree on the single point that they should strive for restoration of true democratic system in the country and each one has a right to strive on its own and under its policy to achieve this objective. That’s why Mr Iqbal met Mr Shah and lauded his struggle for democracy,” he explained.

Earlier in the day, the opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly called Mr Shah. A brief of the conversation shared with the media suggested that the two leaders “agreed to continue their struggle for true democracy in the country”.

Mr Shah had lately come under the spotlight when PML-N information secretary Marriyum Aurangzeb had visited him in the Sukkur jail in September to enquire after his health. The PPP also had found it hard to defend the development amid reports of issuing show-cause notice to former leader of the opposition in the National Assembly for his meeting with the PML-N leader.

Published in Dawn, November 3rd, 2021