Senior PML-N leader Senator Ishaq Dar on Wednesday said he expected a meeting between party supremo Nawaz Sharif and PPP co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari would “hopefully” take place, after weeks of enduring withering criticism from the PPP.

Speaking in an interview on Dawn News show Live with Adil Shahzeb, the senator was questioned about mounting criticism from the PPP ahead of Nawaz’s return and on whether there was a possibility of a meeting between the party heads.

“There is no restriction on a meeting; it should happen and will hopefully take place in the near future.”

Dar said Nawaz was busy with his legal issues after returning to Pakistan.

On criticism from the PPP, he said the PML-N had had a “very good working relationship” with the party. Dar added he felt it “inappropriate” to respond to critical statements from PPP leaders since the two parties had a relationship which would continue into the future.

He said he personally wished that all major political parties should be part of the process to take the country forward.

Dar’s comments come on the heels of the PPP taking exception to the decision of the Punjab caretaker government to suspend Nawaz’s sentence in the Al-Azizia reference and terming it a transgression on the part of the provincial administration.

The PPP had claimed the suspension of the sentence was a “crude manner” to provide relief to the former prime minister. “Why don’t you lock up the courtrooms if decisions [on conviction] are to be taken in this manner?” Punjab PPP General Secretary Syed Hassan Murtaza had said.

He had called Nawaz a ‘ladla-plus’ and said the caretakers were doing everything except holding general elections.

Asserting that suspending Nawaz’s sentence was not in the ambit of the caretaker government, Murtaza had urged the Election Commission of Pakistan to take notice of the act which “was tantamount to ensuring a favour” for the PML-N leader in the upcoming polls.

Meanwhile, in a bid to bring the political temperature down and focus on securing relief for Nawaz in graft cases, the PML-N has decided to re-establish “close coordination” with its allies in the former coalition government.

This decision was made during a meeting at Jati Umra on Sunday, also attended by legal experts in addition to the Sharif family members. Sources had told Dawn that Nawaz would approach the PPP, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Fazl, and other parties of the ‘defunct’ Pakistan Democratic Movement this week.

“Initially, Mr Sharif will phone former president Asif Ali Zardari, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Akhtar Mengal and others to thank them for their moral support throughout his ordeal, before seeking separate meetings with them,” they had said.

The sources had said that the PML-N would avoid a confrontation with the PPP by not responding to the latter’s scathing criticism of the relief given to the PML-N supremo by the judiciary.

Of late, PPP has been complaining about a lack of a level playing field ahead of polls likely in January next year.