‘There are human relations apart from politics’: Aun Chaudhry clears the air on meeting with Nawaz Sharif

Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party's (IPP) Aun Chaudhry, while clearing the air on his brief meeting with former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Sunday, has said that he met the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo in "personal capacity".

Speaking exclusively to Geo News, Chaudhry said: "There are human relations apart from politics [...] I was part of the Shehbaz Shairif's cabinet for one and a half years."

His remarks come as on Saturday, Geo News obtained a video that showed the IPP office bearer meeting the former prime minister and former finance minister Ishaq Dar at the Allama Iqbal International Airport shortly before Nawaz's departure to Minar-e-Pakistan.

"I have explained my position to the party leadership," he added.

Earlier, Jahangir Khan Tareen-led IPP — while distancing itself from the meeting at the Lahore airport — had decided to issue a show-cause notice over the meeting.

Chaudhry, a former aide of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, had thrown his weight behind Tareen and resigned as special adviser to the Punjab chief minister in August 2021 after he was asked to clarify his position on whether he stands with Tareen or the party in the wake of the differences between Imran and Tareen in connection with a high-profile sugar scam.

The three-time former prime minister briefly landed in Islamabad, where he signed and filed appeals against the convictions he was jailed for before he left the country in 2019. After a few hours' stay, Nawaz flew to Lahore to kick-start his party's campaign for next year's election in a rally of thousands of his supporters.

Addressing a massive crowd, the PML-N supremo said that he had no intention of taking revenge on his political opponents and at the same time asked all constitutional institutions to join hands for the country's development.