ISLAMABAD: Veteran politician Makhdoom Javed Hashmi on Monday held a meeting with the former prime minister and PML-N president Nawaz Sharif here at Punjab House. Nawaz Sharif warmly welcomed and hugged Javed Hashmi on his arrival at Punjab House terming him as party’s asset. “Nawaz Sharif appreciated Hashmi’s role for the supremacy of law and civilian authority and both the leaders agreed to continue their struggle for the supremacy of the Constitution," Khawaja Saad Rafique told media persons after the meeting. Javed Hashmi, however, did not formally announce joining the PML-N. “The Central Executive Committee (CEC) of the PML-N will consider inclusion of Javed Hashmi at its next meeting,” Saad Rafique said. Javed Hashmi, a strong critic of Pervez Musharraf, led PML-N as central president after the1999 military coup and also spent around four years in prison on treason charges following a statement against the Pakistan Army. Towards end of the year 2011, Hashmi left the PML-N following criticism on party leadership and joined the PTI where he was elected as the party president in 2013. In 2013 elections, Hashmi won from two constituencies he contested in Islamabad and in Multan from the platform of PTI and retained seat from his native city. After developing differences with Imran Khan during Islamabad sit-in, he resigned from both the party and the Parliament. On 16 October, 2014, he unsuccessfully contested to re-claim his home constituency as an independent candidate but backed by the ruling PML-N. Nawaz Sharif also chaired the meeting of CEC which had been re-organised recently with some changes and discussed preparations for the next year’s general elections and mass-contact campaign. The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal, Senator Raja Zafarul Haq, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Balochistan Chief Minister Sanaullah Zehri, Azad Kashmir Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider, Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Minister Hafeezur Rehman and other CEC members. The CEC meeting discussed various matters relating to party’s organisation and challenges being faced by the party and its leadership following Panama Papers issue, reaffirmed that Nawaz Sharif is most popular leader of the country. Minister for Climate Change Mushahidullah Khan, in a press conference after the meeting, said that among other matters, the meeting discussed the negative impact of the Panama Papers case decision on the national economy and ways to neutralise that impact. Mushahidullah said that Nawaz Sharif was of the view that political forces should remain in contact with each other, adding the PML-N would also contact the PPP leadership. He said the party has also decided to issue a show-cause notice to former prime minister Zafarullah Jamali and Raza Hayat Hiraj for violation of party discipline. He said that during a meeting Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and Javed Hashmi held frank discussion but issue of Hashmi re-joining the party was not discussed. He told a questioner that the PML-N did not want to confront any institution but the nation should decide as to who was confronting with whom. Online adds: Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah said a PML-N figure was behind expulsion of Javed Hashmi from the party. Khursheed Shah said return of Javed Hashmi to PML-N is a good step because he had advised Javed Hashmi not to quit PML-N when he was leaving the party. “But a PML-N figure was behind forcing him to flee from the party. That figure stands sidelined now a days. But it is a fact that Javed Hashmi was the senior most person in party after Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif. It will take time to seek a status by Javed Hashmi in PML-N,” he said this during an informal talk with the journalists. The opposition leader said Nawaz Sharif has been disqualified and now we will have to trust the court in respect of the cases pertaining to Imran Khan and Jahangir Tareen.
