Nawaz resumes official business from Lahore

The PM returned to Pakistan on Sunday after spending seven weeks in London recuperating from open heart surgery

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif doubled down on reviewing his party’s strategy for the upcoming elections in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and on planning a visit to Karachi as he resumed his official duties on Monday.

The premier returned to the country on Sunday after spending seven weeks in London recuperating from open heart surgery. He landed in Lahore where a temporary camp office has been set up.



On Monday, Nawaz met senior Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders including federal ministers Khawaja Saad Rafiq, Khawaja Asif, and Pervaiz Rashid along with senior aide Asif Kirmani and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Rana Sanaullah. They exchanged notes on the party’s strategy for the upcoming polls in the valley.

Plans were also discussed to visit the port city of Karachi to offer condolences to the family of philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi who passed away last week.

Matters pertaining to backchannel talks between the government and opposition on thrashing out the terms of reference for a probe into the Panama Papers were also high on the agenda. Nawaz recently asked Finance Minister Ishaq Dar to woo ‘soft’ figures in the opposition, particularly in the Pakistan Peoples Party, on not including the premier’s name in the ToRs.

Nawaz is expected to operate out of the city till the elections in AJK are over, sources close to the premier told The Express Tribune.

“Mian [Nawaz Sharif] sahib will have one foot in Lahore and the other in Islamabad till the election buzz is over,” sources said.

Elections for the 48-seat AJK legislative assembly are scheduled for July 21. Of the 41 seats on which direct elections will be held, 12 are located in different parts of the country as part of the quota for the Occupied Kashmir refugees. Of these, nine seats are located in Punjab, two in Karachi, and one in Peshawar.

The PML-N, in addition to campaigning for seats in the valley, is eyeing the Punjab-based refugee seats. Two of these are located in Rawalpindi district, one each in Islamabad, Lahore, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Narowal, Gujrat and Multan. With Punjab traditionally regarded as a PML-N bastion, the party is confident of bagging these seats.

Nawaz’s camp office has also been set up in Lahore in this regard rather than owing to health concerns.

Stakes in elections are high and have seen violent scuffles between supporters of the PML-N and its rival PPP that saw a PML-N supporter die while its candidate from Haveli, Chaudhry Aziz, was injured.



Insiders told The Express Tribune that during Monday’s meeting, the PML-N leadership discussed plans for the PM to visit the valley to boost the party’s election campaign there. Asked about health restrictions for the premier to travel, PML-N sources said that the restrictions apply to extended road travel.

“Physicians in London have advised restricted road travel to the prime minister since it is more exhausting. But Mian sahib’s movement mostly involves aerial routes,” disclosed a PML-N stalwart, who is known to have close terms with the Sharif family, on the condition of anonymity.

“You may see him in Kashmir and Karachi in the days to come,” he added.

Additionally, Nawaz has toughened his stance against India over atrocities in Indian Kashmir, particularly in the wake of the latest wave of violence there.

On Sunday Nawaz had slammed the killing of 20 civilian protesters in Srinagar by the Indian Army. “Oppressive measures such as these cannot deter the valiant people of Jammu and Kashmir from their demand of exercising their right to self-determination in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions,” he had said.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 12^th, 2016.