Murree meeting: At party confab, PM aims to resolve crunch questions

PM Nawaz dicusses fuel crisis, Senate team, Musharraf and agreements with China

ISLAMABAD:

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif waded through a plateful of unresolved issues in Murree during Tuesday’s brainstorming session with top leaders of his party, sources privy to the discussions told The Express Tribune.

Leaders of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) seemed preoccupied with the nationwide fuel crisis and the upcoming Senate elections as well as the implementation of the National Action Plan.

The premier is not expected to leave Murree until the ruling party finalises its strategy despite the serious reservations expressed within the government over the past few weeks, sources said. In fact, he will take a few more days before leaving for Lahore where he will meet aspiring candidates for the Senate elections.

According to sources, the prime minister, along with his close aides, discussed his Senate team, who will remain senators till 2021.

They said that Nawaz has ruled out two requests of PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari: to endorse another PPP candidate as Senate chairman and allow PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain to be re-elected as a senator from Punjab.

The PML-N’s leadership, the sources also said, has decided to bag all 11 senators from Punjab and not to oblige anyone in this regard. They also discussed the party’s candidates from Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

About General Pervez Musharraf, the sources revealed, the PML-N leadership was briefed that Musharraf’s name was placed on the exit control list upon the directives of the Supreme Court and it is the court’s, not the executive’s, mandate to allow him to travel abroad.

On the creation of military courts, which is going to be challenged in the apex court, the leadership expressed their satisfaction and said the verdict of the court would remove ambiguities in this regard, the sources added.

The sources said that Nawaz has taken strict action on the fuel shortage and electricity breakdown, adding that the PML-N leadership pointed the finger at incompetent bureaucracy and resolved that cabinet ministers should be vigilant in the future.

The top leadership also discussed the agreements reached with China for establishment of coal-based projects, reviewed ministerial profiles and performance as well as the PML-N’s manifesto about the country’s development projects, the sources added.

The Punjab chief minister gave a presentation to the prime minister on the NAP’s implementation.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28^th, 2015.