LAHORE, March 3: Former stopgap chief minister Dost Muhammad Khosa called on Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif here on Sunday to urge the leadership to ‘overlook’ his past mistakes.
Dost was accompanied by his father and senior adviser to CM Sirdar Zulfiqar Khosa as well as brother MPA Hassam Khosa.
He expressed his confidence in the leadership of the Sharifs, pledged to work as a worker of the PML-N and urged the leadership to ignore his past faults.
Shahbaz was quoted as having said that workers were like children for the leadership and elders used to forgive and forget mistakes of children.
The reconciliation between the Sharifs and the Khosas has brought about a sigh of relief for senior Khosa, who is disturbed at the joining of the PPP by his elder son Saifuddin Khosa.
The two political families, having differences on some other issues, fell apart in August the previous year when Shahbaz withdrew the portfolio of local bodies from Dost Khosa and assigned him another less important department of commerce and investment. Dost refused to accept the new assignment and started speaking publicly against the governance of the chief minister.
He also alleged that the provincial government was intentionally leaking to the media alleged corruption and embezzlement reports involving the Khosas.
Zulfiqar Khosa also resigned as senior adviser to CM. The differences deepened to the extent that the PPP began eying the political family as its likely ally in the Dera Ghazi Khan politics.
However, thanks to reconciliation efforts of Chaudhry Nisar, the Khosas averted taking the extreme step of divorcing the PML-N they remained affiliated with even during hard times under the Musharraf regime.
The senior Khosa retook his responsibilities as senior adviser to the CM but Dost remained adamant.
With the closing in of the election season and continued persuasion of his father, Dost tendered his apologies through a press statement a day ago for his public statements against the Sharifs.
Meanwhile, former MPA Dr Asma Mamdot also called on Shahbaz Sharif and expressed her complete confidence in the leadership of Pakistan Muslim League-N president Nawaz Sharif. She also announced joining the PML-N.
Dr Asma, who had resigned as PML-F MPA a couple of days ago, said that she would work as a party worker in the leadership of Nawaz.
Shahbaz welcomed the former MPA into the PML-N folds and said that the party’s popularity increased due to ‘politics of public service’ and that’s why a large number of political personalities were now joining the party.