ISLAMABAD: A forward bloc of members of Pakistan’s largest opposition party met with Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday, a senior official has said, just days after opposition parties held an all-parties conference in a show of strength.
Fifteen members of the provincial Punjab Assembly belonging to the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) met Khan at his Banigala residence in Islamabad and expressed “full confidence” in the PM and Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, the prime minister’s special assistant Naeem ul Haque said in a Twitter post.
The PML-N has officially rejected reports of any such meeting but Haque tweeted, “the hopes of PMLN MPAs [members of provincial assembly] from Punjab continue to get shattered with their party as was obvious in their today’s meeting with the PM.”
He confirmed that 15 lawmakers from the party, which he declined to name, were brought to the PM’s personal residence by Buzdar and held an hour and a half long meeting with him.
PML-N’s information secretary Marriyum Aurangzeb rejected reports of a meeting.
“Not a single MPA belonging to the PML-N is included in the names reported by the media,” she told media. “We have been waiting for the names of the PML-N MPAs so that we may offer comments on the matter.”
Khan came to power in July polls, unseating the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the jailed head of the PML-N that came in second. The party had denounced the elections as rigged and accused the judiciary and the military of tipping the scales in Khan’s favor, a charge both vehemently deny.
Last week, major opposition parties in the country, including the PML-N and the Pakistan People’s Party, held an all-parties moot to unite against the government and plan a protest movement. However, chinks have since emerged in the opposition’s united front and reports have been circulating for days about disgruntled members of the PML-N reaching out to government representatives.
