ISLAMABAD, April 11: PML-N President Mian Nawaz Sharif reiterated his party’s call for early polls, but did not say anything about his strategy to force the government to call early elections.

“It will be better for the government itself to hold elections as early as possible,” Mr Sharif said in reply to a question at a news conference at which former PPP senator Enver Baig announced that he was joining the PML-N.

Mr Sharif, whose party has often been labelled in the media as a friendly opposition, again accused the government of having failed to do anything worthwhile for the masses who did not want to give it any more time. He was of the view that people’s sufferings would keep mounting if the present government continued. The PML-N chief alleged that the rulers had surpassed all corruption records.

According to him, a new scandal surfaces almost everyday and tarnishes the face of democracy.

The PML-N chief denied that the opposition had changed its position on the memogate and resumption of Nato supplies, saying his party had informed the prime minister and the Parliamentary Committee on National Security about its stance on the issue.

Mr Sharif said that he had also expressed his party’s reservations over drone attacks at a recent meeting with US Ambassador Cameron Munter.

He dispelled a perception about being a friendly opposition and said had it been so, President Zardari would not have used the harsh language against him and his party during a recent visit to Lahore.

Mr Sharif welcomed Mr Enver Baig into the party and appointed him a member of the party’s Central Working Committee, the highest decision-making body of the party.

Replying to a question about PML-Q leaders Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, Mr Nawaz asserted that those who had harmed the party in the past and pledged to elect Gen Pervez Musharraf as the president in uniform for 10 times would never be allowed to join his party.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Baig said that he personally believed that the PML-N had a capable team of finance managers who could steer the country out of present economic mess.