Nawaz Sharif directs PML-N to Support PPPP in Bye-elections
Pakistan Times Staff Report

LAHORE: Pakistan's deposed Prime Minister, Mian Nawaz Sharif has told his Pakistan Muslim League [Nawaz] not to contest the National Assembly by-polls in Attock and Tharparkar and support Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians [PPPP] candidates instead.

Credible sources say that Sharif told party leaders that the government would not tolerate the PML-N’s candidates in the field so it should support the PPPP instead of nominating its own candidates.

ARD Lauds Sharif

During the meeting of the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy [ARD] in Lahore on Monday, the party leaders contacted Mian Nawaz Sharif to finalise the name of a PML-N candidate for NA-59 (Attock) against Shaukat Aziz, the candidate, being fielded by the ruling faction of the PML.

Sharif viewed that he was not in favour of fielding a PML-N candidate against Aziz 'because in the October 2002 general elections, the main contest was between the PPPP and the PML, so the PPPP should be given a chance to field its candidate in Attock.'

Terms Government as 'The worst Enemy'

Mian Nawaz Sharif said that in the recent by-polls, the ruling party cornered the PML-N candidates, which lost three provincial assembly seats, while Malik Ahad and Talib Hussain Dogaran, who were elected on PML-N tickets but joined the PML, won the by-polls. He said the government was the worst enemy of the PML-N and could not tolerate its political activities in the country.

Directs Tehmina and Nisar

Sources close to the Sharif said that he [Nawaz] had directed Tehmina Daultana and Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan not to take a risk and resigning from the National Assembly to contest against Shaukat Aziz.

He said that the PML-N must be restructured and this is what party leaders should focus on. Sharif also directed the party leadership to reorganise the party from central to union council level before the next local bodies elections.●