ISLAMABAD, May 26: The political atmosphere in the country would have improved considerably as a result of Mian Nawaz Sharif's gesture to visit Nawabshah to offer condolences to President Asif Ali Zardari on the death of his father, but bad weather prevented this from happening on Thursday.

Mr Sharif and other senior PML-N leaders who had planned to go to Nawabshah waited at the Islamabad's Benazir Bhutto International Airport for more than an hour, but their flight was not cleared and the pilot of his chartered plane informed him that it would be risky to fly because of a storm.

And even if they managed to fly Nawabshah, the pilot said, the return flight to Islamabad might not be possible because of reports that the weather could get worse later in the day.

According to spokesman for the Punjab government Senator Pervaiz Rasheed, who was in the party delegation, Mr Sharif did not want to stay overnight in Nawabshah because of some important meetings planned in Islamabad on Friday and, therefore, he decided to cancel the trip.

Senator Rasheed denied there was any political or security reason behind the decision to cancel the visit. He said it was to be a social visit and the military secretary to the president had been informed about the cancellation and another convenient time had been sought for the meeting.

President's spokesman Farhatullah Babar, when contacted, said he did not see any political reason behind Mr Sharif's decision to cancel the Nawabshah visit at the eleventh hour.

He further said that the president, who was also the co-chairman of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), was scheduled to hold some important meetings in Islamabad on Friday after which he was considering to allocate one or two days to receive condolences from various personalities.

Mr Sharif is likely to meet President Zardari in Islamabad in the next couple of days.

Earlier, talking briefly to reporters outside the airport, Mr Sharif said the government did not appear to be serious in investigating the May 22 terrorist attack on PMS Mehran base in Karachi and called for an impartial inquiry into it.