PML-N decides against inclusion of PPP, ANP in PDM: sources

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has decided against the inclusion of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Awami National Party (ANP) in the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) after consultation within the party, ARY NEWS reported quoting sources on Saturday.

Both PML-N leaders including Shehbaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz attended the party’s consultative meeting ahead of the PDM meeting in Islamabad today, where a decision on the matter would be made.

“The PML-N will convey its recommendation to the PDM today,” they said adding that other political parties in the opposition alliance have also expressed their reservation on the inclusion of PPP and ANP in the PDM without responding to the show-cause notice.

Both Shehbaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz, according to sources, later left for the PDM meeting in a vehicle. It would be for the first time that Shehbaz would attend the PDM meeting, to be headed by JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif has previously made approaches towards PPP and ANP after he invited their leaders to a meeting of parliamentary parties in Islamabad, raising the chances that both parties would once again become part of the alliance.

However, PML-N leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi the very next day rejected the inclusion of both parties in the PDM, saying that they could only be entertained after a formal reply to the show-cause notice issued to them.

The PPP and ANP have separated their ways from the PDM after they were issued show-cause notice over the nomination of the opposition leader in the Senate.