Panama leaks scandal: Maulana Fazl advises Zardari to meet Nawaz

PPP leader says party will not join anti-democratic forces or support anyone trying to come to power through shortcuts

LONDON/ ISLAMABAD: Amid the brewing controversy over the Panamagate scandal, JUI-F chief Fazlur Rehman has met with former president Asif Zardari to convince him to lend his support to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

The Maulana met the PPP co-chairman at his Park Lane flat in London, sources told The Express Tribune.



The meeting continued for over three hours, during which Fazl delivered a message from the premier to the former president and advised him to meet PM Nawaz, who is also in London these days.

According to the sources, Fazl told Zardari that the premier wanted the PPP to support the PML-N in parliament over the Panama leaks issue to allow the PM to complete his five-year term.

In turn, the PPP leader informed the JUI-F chief about his grievances over Nawaz’s attitude toward the Sindh government, especially the anti-graft cases against government officers and the Dr Asim case.

However, Zardari assured Fazl that the PPP would neither become a part of any anti-democracy movement nor support anyone trying to come to power through shortcuts.

Both the leaders, the sources said, agreed that democracy would not be allowed to derail under any condition.



No final decision has been reached for a meeting between PM Nawaz and Zardari.

On the other hand, senior PPP leaders are trying to convince Zardari not to meet the premier. The PPP leaders have requested the former president to stay away from the PM as it will be damaging for the party, insiders told The Express Tribune.

Sources in the PPP claim the senior party leaders had called up their leader in the past couple of days and advised him not to meet Nawaz, as it would send a wrong message to the workers’ base, which has regained some life after aggressively opposing the PM on the issue of Panama Papers.

Reportedly, some of the party deserters, like Samsam Bukhari and Ashraf Sohna from Okara who had joined the PTI last year, are reconsidering their decisions, as they feel their political future will be safer back at the PPP. They are said to be negotiating their return with the PPP leadership.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 25^th, 2016.