The meeting of the Rahbar Committee scheduled on Tuesday did not take place as the PML-N nominated members rushed to Lahore following the arrest of Rana Sanaullah, the party's president of Punjab chapter the same day; an alternate date has yet to be agreed.
On Tuesday, a meeting of the Rahbar Committee, an alliance of parliamentary parties in the opposition except Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), was scheduled to map out a plan to have Sanjrani de-seated from his office through a no-confidence motion.
The meeting was also scheduled to elect Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) Chief Maulana Fazal Ur Rehman as the Rahbar Committee's Chairman. Two senior leaders of PML-N - former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Ahsan Iqbal, members of the 11-member Rahbar Committee, rushed to Lahore on Tuesday following the arrest of their party colleague and conveyed their regrets to Fazalur Rehman for their inability to attend the meeting.
Fazalur Rehman was forced to postpone the meeting while the new date for the panel's meeting is not decided yet, sources in JUI-F told Business Recorder.
"In the absence of a major political force like PML-N from Rahbar Committee meeting, the event would have lacked any significance-which would have created an impression that N-League is quietly distancing itself from the decisions taken by the joint opposition in APC (All Parties Conference) on the pretext of PML-N leadership's hectic political engagements in Lahore," said a senior JUI-F leader, requesting anonymity.
The JUI-F leadership, the source said, feels that both PML-N and Pakistan People's Party (PPP) "are not serious" in getting the chairman Senate de-seated even though both the major opposition parties have publicly reiterated their resolve to send Sanjrani packing.
The JUI-F source further said that his party's chief is still trying to reach out to PML-N chief Shehbaz Sharif to finalise the next date for Rahbar Committee's meeting but has not received any response so far.
Reports are rife suggesting a possible deal between the Sharif family and the powers-that-be-a scenario that may possibly allow former PM Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz to fly to Britain on the pretext of former PM's medical treatment.
Reports also suggest that PPP supremo Asif Ali Zardari is likely to use the removal of Sanjrani as Senate Chairman as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the establishment.
When contacted, Chairman PML-N Raja Zafar-ul-Haq denied that the N-League was distancing itself from the Rahbar Committee's meeting. "You are well aware that our leaders are being arrested on false cases, which has lately kept us occupied rather than anything else. One of our party colleagues Rana Sanaullah has been arrested in a fake case so the party command has to be in Lahore to take stock of recent developments. This does not mean we are shying away from Rahbar Committee's meeting. The meeting can take place anytime on a mutually agreeable date," he told Business Recorder.
Zafar said neither the PML-N leadership would strike any deal nor it would leave Pakistan. "PML-N is a political force and our struggle against undemocratic forces that want to weaken democracy would continue. We will brave the odds." Agreement on having the chairman Senate "through legal and constitutional means" was one major action of the opposition parties' APC convened by JUI-F chief Fazal on June 26.
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