Pak ruling party's London huddle decides no early elections

London: There will be no early elections in Pakistan, as decided by the ruling party Pakistan Muslim League's London huddle.

The top leaders' session held at an undisclosed location also decided to focus on offering economic relief to the masses and also taking tough but long-term economic decisions, according to insiders of the meeting, IANS reported quoting the News.

The meeting between Pak Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, former PM Nawaz Sharif and senior PMLN leaders, including Khwaja Asif, Miftah Ismail, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Atta Tarar, Rana Sanaullah, Ishaq Dar, Ayaz Sadiq and others continued for over six hours in London.

Nawaz Sharif invited suggestions on early elections along with various other issues, from all the party leaders. The meeting was almost unanimous that implementation of the economic agenda should be the focus for now, and the next elections could be announced later in consultation with the coalition partners, The News reported.

Answering questions after the meeting, Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said that the PMLN leaders and PM Shehbaz Sharif presented a full report on Pakistan's social, economic and political situation to Nawaz Sharif.

She said the PMLN and its coalition partners had inherited the worst kind of economic situation from the PTI government and the meeting considered the huge suffering of people as a result of the policies of the previous government. She said the meeting reviewed the IMF conditions and its possible impact on the lives of the people of Pakistan.

When asked as to why these issues could not be discussed virtually and why the whole government was visiting London, Marriyum said there was nothing surprising in the London meeting. "Nawaz Sharif is our Quaid. Meeting between Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif was long overdue. We have inherited today's Pakistan in a written-off situation and we needed to review the whole situation to formulate a plan. This was a private delegation."

When asked about the early elections, she said that the current government's "mandate is till next year and we are here to give relief to the people of Pakistan. It's the history of Nawaz Sharif to take Pakistan out of the economic crisis and if there is one person who can deliver, that's Shehbaz Sharif. Only the PMLN has the right strategy," The News reported.

(Inputs from IANS)