Shehbaz Sharif, Jahangir Tareen secretly met to discuss ousting of PM Imran Khan

ISLAMABAD: Opposition leader and PMLN President Shehbaz Sharif held a secret meeting with PTI’s estranged but influential leader Jehangir Khan Tareen, it is learnt.

A credible source told The News that the two leaders met a few days ago to discuss the Imran Khan government and its fate. Tareen, when contacted, did not offer any comment on this critically important meeting in the wake of the opposition’s announcement to move a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Without confirming or denying his meeting with Shehbaz Sharif, Jehangir Tareen said that his group of estranged ruling party MNAs and MPAs had given him the mandate to make any political decision. Tareen said that being a politician, he believes in interaction with other politicians. Such contacts are part of politics, he added.

Tareen said that everybody is upset over the economic condition of the country and because of the growing price hike. He said that his group’s MPs are of the view that they could not stay indifferent to the woes of the masses. To a question, Tareen said that his group's MPs are more than 30 in number.

This week, many parliamentarians supporting estranged PTI leader Jehangir Khan Tareen met twice in Lahore and reposed their complete confidence in him and vowed to stand by him. Last Tuesday, according to a media report, the group gathered at a reception hosted by Aun Chaudhry, brother of PTI MPA Amin Chaudhry and a close confidant of Tareen. Those who attended the reception included MNAs Khwaja Shiraz, Sardar Riaz Mazari, Raja Riaz, Mubeen Alam Anwer, Ghulam Lali, provincial ministers Nauman Langrial, Ajmal Cheema, advisers to Chief Minister Faisal Jaboana, Abdul Hayee Dastee, MPAs Chaudhry Zawar, Aslam Bharwana, Tahir Randhawa, Salman Naeem, Omar Aftab Dhillon, senior politician Ishaq Khakwani and others.

The group, headed by Tareen, had also met a few days ago at the Gaddafi Stadium lounge and watched a cricket match of the Pakistan Super League. The group decided to move ahead together and expressed complete confidence in the leadership of Tareen.

Talking to the media, Jehangir Tareen had said it was the need of the hour to sit together to find solutions to the prevailing issues of the country. For the purpose, he was quoted as saying, all friends gathered and discussed core issues, including the price-hike. To a question, he said that nothing regarding a no-confidence move by the opposition had been discussed in the meeting. About his meeting with political leaders, he said politicians remained in contact with each other and it would continue in future as well.

However, in the meeting between Shehbaz Sharif and Jehangir Tareen, which remained secret and was not even shared with most of their respective party leaders, the two reportedly discussed ways and means to get rid of the Imran Khan government. The issue of a no confidence motion was also discussed, the source said.

Interestingly, the oppositions’ activities concerning a possible no trust move are being kept secret by a few key leaders. Few politicians in the PMLN, PPP or JUIF, including very senior ones, are in the picture about what is actually going on behind the scenes.