President Asif Ali Zardari and PML-N Quaid Mian Nawaz Sharif on Saturday came face-to-face after a gap of about two months at a family dinner and resolved to continue cooperation on issues of national interest and implementation of the Charter of Democracy.
The dinner, hosted in honour of Mian Nawaz Sharif and his wife Begum Kulsoom Nawaz at the President House, was also attended by Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and his wife. Faryal Talpur, sister of President Asif Ali Zardari, was also present.
This was the first social contact between President Zardari and Mian Nawaz Sharif after the PML-N parted ways with the PPP-led coalition government as a mark of protest for not honouring the promises on the restoration of the judiciary.
Before the dinner, both President Zardari and Mian Nawaz Sharif held one-on-one meeting that lasted for 40 minutes. Sources said that they discussed political issues and matters pertaining to national security and also the current economic crises in the country.
Nawaz Sharif, with his political team, had last called on Asif Zardari on September 8 after his election as the president. However, this was only a courtesy call to congratulate him.
Saturday’s meeting was held in the background of the perception that the PML-N was using its influence on Saudi Arabia not to bail out the Zardari government by providing oil facility on deferred payment.
However, sources in the Presidency told The News that Nawaz Sharif dispelled this misconception and assured Zardari that he was ready to go anywhere for Pakistan and would always be ready to lend a hand for the country.
Before going to the President House, Mian Nawaz Sharif held a consultative meeting with his political team and told them in clear words that he was ready to go anywhere in the interest of Pakistan. “The country belongs neither to Asif Ali Zardari nor to me but to 160 million people and all of us must strive to bring it out of the current economic and national security crisis,” sources quoted Nawaz Sharif as saying during his meeting with the leaders of the PML-N at the Punjab House before the dinner.
The sources said it was a social and family interaction and Nawaz Sharif stepped in the Presidency after a gap of nine years. In this meeting, issues of national importance came under discussion with focus on the current economic crunch besides terrorism.
The sources said President Zardari, who described Mian Nawaz Sharif as his elder brother, sought his cooperation and that of his party to pull the country out of the present economic and security crises.
The sources said repeal of the 17th Amendment was discussed with special focus on clipping powers of the president with respect to dissolving the assembly under the Article 58 (2) (b).
The sources said Asif Ali Zardari assured Nawaz Sharif that in this regard he was ready to bow before the will of parliament and whatever decision parliament took, he would accept it.
The sources said the president told Nawaz Sharif that he wanted cooperation of all the political parties of the country to solve the issues. They said Nawaz Sharif stressed the need for implementing the Charter of Democracy that was signed by him and Shaheed Mohtrama Benazir Bhutto besides the restoration of the deposed judges. He also conveyed the reservation of his party on obtaining loan from the IMF and said if it was unavoidable, then approval from parliament should be sought.
The sources said Nawaz Sharif also demanded that the committee to review the 17th Amendment, as pledged by President Zardari, be nominated at the earliest. The sources said President Asif Ali Zardari briefed Nawaz Sharif on his recent visit to Saudi Arabia and China.
Earlier, talking to newsmen before the meeting, PML-N Information Secretary Ahsan Iqbal termed the meeting a purely social interaction but added the political situation could also come under discussion.
He said the only agenda of the PML-N was to serve the people of Pakistan and to keep the national interest supreme.
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