Cracks as Shehbaz Sharif, Hamza Shehbaz 'skip' PML-N meeting

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza Shehbaz have skipped an organizational meeting of the party headed virtually by the party supremo Nawaz Sharif, ARY NEWS reported.

According to sources, the PML-N spokesman has conveyed previously that Shehbaz Sharif and Hamza Shehbaz would be attending the organizational meeting for DG Khan, however, their absence during the meeting was felt by the participants of the meeting.

“Neither Shehbaz Sharif nor members of the PML-N who support a mediated path as the future course of election strategy attended the meeting,” they said.

It emerged that the PML-N meeting had agreed that the party’s narrative for the next general election in 2023 would be ‘Vote ko Izzat Do’ [Give Respect to Vote].

The sources said that the participants were also asked to take an oath to follow the narrative during the next elections.

However, some other sources within the party have claimed that Shehbaz Sharif was busy in meetings with Balochistan leaders including Jamal Kakar, and Sardar Yaqoob. “Even Ahsan Iqbal attended the Balochistan organizing committee meeting,” they said.

PML-N spokesperson Uzma Bokhari while sharing the party’s version on the matter said that all party leaders would attend the next meeting.

She also denied that oath was administered during the meeting to further the narrative of ‘vote ko izzat do’ and shared that rather forms were distributed for establishing organizational structure at the union council level.