ISLAMABAD: Ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Abdul Aleem Khan, until recently considered a close aide of Prime Minister Imran Khan, on Friday met opposition leader and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in London, local media widely reported on Saturday, after opposition parties moved a no-confidence motion seeking Khan's ouster.

Earlier this week, Aleem announced he would be joining a group of lawmakers led by estranged PTI leader Jahangir Khan Tareen who is also currently in London, reportedly seeking medical treatment. Aleem's announcement to join Tareen came as a major blow to PM Khan and his government as it grapples with a chronic economic crisis and rising inflation amid reports of strained ties with the all-powerful military.

Aleem’s meeting with Sharif, who lives in exile in London, has rattled the PTI as it struggles to win over disgruntled factions after the opposition filed a no confidence motion in parliament to force PM Khan out. 

“An hours long meeting took place between opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz supremo Nawaz Sharif and disgruntled Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Aleem Khan in London this week where the opposition’s move to dislodge Prime Minister Imran Khan came under discussion among other things,” the Dawn newspaper reported.

Dawn said the meeting took place shortly after Aleem Khan’s arrival in the United Kingdom, at the Sharif family’s office in Stanhope House.

“The presence of Aleem Khan in London sparked speculations that the PTI lawmaker was here to meet Jahangir Khan Tareen, who is currently in Oxford recovering from a hospital stay and medical treatment,” Dawn reported. “But the two estranged leaders of the ruling PTI have not met, and Aleem Khan instead called on Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday after mutual contacts arranged the visit.”

Sharif declined to answer reporters’ comments outside Stanhope House when pressed on Friday about the meeting with Aleem.

“During the meeting … Aleem Khan talked to Nawaz about his political victimization at the hands of NAB [National Accountability Bureau], and his arrest in 2019 in an assets beyond means case,” Dawn reported. “When asked if the senior Sharif and Aleem Khan discussed the possibility of the latter joining PML-N or the slot of the chief minister in Punjab, the source said, ‘Everything was discussed, as well as current political developments. This is a welcome step, that politicians are meeting despite their differences’.”

The opposition needs a simple majority of 172 and says it requires just 11 more votes to force Khan out with the no confidence motion. The speaker of the lower house must now convene parliament within two weeks, though it could take weeks before a vote takes place.

Opposition lawmakers and political analysts say Khan, a former cricket star, has lost the backing of the powerful military whose support they say secured the path to power for his political party in 2018.

Khan denies the military helped him into office. The military says it does not interfere in politics.