PML-N to decide taking part in ‘Azadi March’ on Monday

Shehbaz to preside over meeting of party’s central executive committee

ISLAMABAD: The central executive committee of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) will meet on Monday (today) to decide whether or not the party would participate in the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl’s (JUI-F) anti-government ‘Azadi March’.

The meeting will be presided over by PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif at his official residence in the Ministers’ Enclave.
Shehbaz will inform the central executive committee of the party about his recent meetings with JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman.
According to sources, the recommendations of the central executive committee will be sent to the party’s supreme leader, incarcerated former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, and a final announcement will made after his approval.

The PML-N is also expected to discuss the overall political situation, the economic and foreign policies of the government, the Indian atrocities in occupied Kashmir and the party’s future course of action.
The party will chalk out a strategy for dealing with cases filed against its leaders.

The party’s organisational affairs and the preparations for workers conventions will also be reviewed.

On September 22, Shehbaz met Fazl and the two leaders agreed to immediately convene the all parties conference to finalise the arrangements and fix a date for the anti-government ‘Azadi March’ after the PML-N’s central executive committee.

The JUI-F chief had also met the PML-N president on September 15 seeking his party’s support for the long march.

On Saturday, PML-N Central General Secretary Ahsan Iqbal said his party had decided to participate in the JUI-F’s long march. “However, the extent of our participation will be decided at the party’s central executive committee meeting,” he added.

Nawaz has already forwarded his commitment to the JUI-F chief about his party’s participation in the march. However, there seems to be some reluctance within the PML-N camp on going ahead with the move.

The JUI-F has also been trying to convince the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) to participate in the rally.

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had announced that his party would not participate in JUI-F’s long march and only expressed his “moral and political support” for Fazl.

JUI-F’s Akram Durrani, who is the convener of the joint opposition’s Rahbar Committee, recently met PPP leaders Nayyar Bukhari and Sherry Rehman after which the two sides announced that they agreed on “sending the PTI government home”.