No early elections in Pakistan, London huddle decides

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 at an undisclosed location in London.

Pakistan Muslim League's London huddle has decided that there will be no early elections and the main focus of the current government should be on providing economic relief to the masses and also taking tough but long-term economic decisions, according to insiders of the meeting, The News reported.

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 at an undisclosed location in London.

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Nawaz Sharif sought suggestions on various issues, including early elections from all the party leaders and everyone agreed that the PMLN should implement the economic agenda for the remaining term and then announce the next elections in consultation with the coalition partners, The News reported.

Answering questions of this correspondent 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 and briefed him on the agenda of the government and its planning.

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She said the PMLN and its coalition partners had inherited the worst kind of economic situation from the PTI government and the meeting considered that the huge suffering of people was a result of the policies of previous government. She said the meeting reviewed the IMF conditions and how the people of Pakistan were affected by it.

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 todays Pakistan in a written-off situation and we needed to review the whole situation to formulate a plan. This was a private delegation."

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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.

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