Nisar may quit PML-N 'if party becomes housemaid'

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz senior leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has made it clear that he wants to continue his association with the party only if it is not made a housemaid.

The former interior minister also said he would soon choose a party through which he would contest the general elections.

He said, “Misunderstandings were being spread about the stay of Shehbaz Sharif in London. If he is given the mandate to truly work as the president of the party, there may be many improvements.”

However, Nisar feared that Shehbaz would not be given space and mandate to work.

He said that the decision about his ticket would not be made by any party or a parliamentary board; instead, he would decide himself in the next week that from which party’s platform he would fight the election.

He said that he had no contacts with Nawaz Sharif like before but he “is still associated with the PML”.

Nisar said that he founded the party 34 years back with Sharif and other leaders and he belonged to the party.

He clarified that he was friends with Imran Khan since childhood but never had any political association.

“There has been no contact directly or indirectly with Imran for the last three and a half years,” he added.

About the nexus of PTI and PPP during the Senate elections, he said, “It is not unusual for Imran and Zardari to join hands. Sharif had said many things about Benazir in the past but he shook hands with her at one time and signed the Charter of Democracy.”

Nisar said, “The handshake between Imran and Zardari is a good omen. There is no harm in sitting together if the ideas of the two match.”

He said, “Misunderstandings are being spread about Shehbaz’s stay in London, but he is in London because of his health issues and will return home today.”

He said that he thought that accountability could not be done under the current situation in Pakistan. “No one is serious about it. The uncertainties have not reduced by the PM-CJP meeting. They have rather increased. If the purpose of the meeting was to create soft corner in the institutions, then it is the very thing I have been pointing out for the whole year that blaming the institutions should stop.”

He said, “Had this path been adopted earlier, the PM-CJP meeting would not have been required.”

He recommended the government and the Supreme Court to work together to remove suspicions.

Nisar expressed his reservations over the PM’s visit to US and meeting with VP. He said such meetings would promote the negative American narrative.

“The purpose of this meeting is beyond my understanding,” said Nisar. “We should not give the US authorities any chance to lecture our leadership. The one-sided US narrative should be discouraged.”