High-level committee to convince opposition to eschew anti-govt march

ISLAMABAD: A high-level committee has been constituted on the directives of Prime Minister Imran Khan to hold talks with opposition parties in an effort to convince them to forswear the planned anti-government march, ARY News reported on Friday.

Sources relayed Federal Minister for Defence Pervez Khattak will head the committee which also comprises of National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, Federal Ministers Shafqat Mahmood and Noorul Haq Qadri, former finance minister Asad Umar, and Punjab Assembly Speaker and PML-Q leader Chaudhry Pervez Elahi.

Khattak said the committee has been constituted to hold a dialogue with opposition parties to prevail upon them to shun the planned anti-government march.

Earlier today, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif announced his party’s support for the Azadi March of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F).

Addressing the media after meeting JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman in Lahore, Shehbaz Sharif said that PML-N will welcome JUI-F chief Maulana Fazl on October 31 and will present its demands in the Azadi March.

Shehbaz Sharif said that he has received instructions through a letter from PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and the party will raise voice for people of Kashmir in the Azadi March.

The PML-N in an earlier meeting had decided to let the party’s jailed supremo Nawaz Sharif to take the decision over the issue.