'Met Nawaz in personal capacity': Aun Chaudhry on airport interaction with PML-N supremo

By
Raees Ansari

October 22, 2023


Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif (left) and Istehkam-e-Pakistan Partys Aun Chaudhry — AFP/Facebook/@Awn Chaudry
Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif (left) and Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party's Aun Chaudhry — AFP/Facebook/@Awn Chaudry
  • IPP office bearer met PML-N's Nawaz Sharif at Lahore airport.
  • "There are human relations other than politics," says Chaudhry.
  • Nawaz returned to Pakistan after ending a 4-year self-imposed exile.

In a bid to clear the air, Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party's (IPP) Additional Secretary Aun Chaudhry on Sunday said that he met Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif "in a personal capacity".

A day earlier, Geo News obtained a video that showed the IPP office bearer meeting the former prime minister and former finance minister Ishaq Dar at the Allama Iqbal International Airport shortly before Nawaz's departure to Minar-e-Pakistan.

"There are human relations other than politics [...] I was part of Shehbaz Shairif's cabinet for one and a half years," Chaudhry said while speaking to Geo News today.

"I have explained my position to the party leadership," he added.

His remarks come as earlier Jahangir Khan Tareen-led IPP — while distancing itself from the meeting at the Lahore airport — had decided to issue a show-cause notice over the meeting.

Chaudhry, a former aide of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, had thrown his weight behind Tareen and resigned as special adviser to the Punjab chief minister in August 2021 after he was asked to clarify his position on whether he stands with Tareen or the party in the wake of the differences between Imran and Tareen in connection with a high-profile sugar scam.

The three-time former prime minister briefly landed in Islamabad, where he signed and filed appeals against the convictions he was jailed for before he left the country in 2019. After a few hours' stay, Nawaz flew to Lahore to kick-start his party's campaign for next year's election in a rally of thousands of his supporters.

Addressing a massive crowd, the PML-N supremo said that he had no intention of taking revenge on his political opponents and at the same time asked all constitutional institutions to join hands for the country's development.