Nawaz’s secret dash to Dubai PML-N President

Nawaz’s secret dash to Dubai PML-N President, Mian Nawaz Sharif, made an unannounced dash to Dubai Thursday afternoon and returned to Pakistan the same evening. The visit was kept completely under wraps and even the senior most party leaders had no idea that their leader had gone missing from the country for a few hours. According to a source, Mr. Sharif also held an “important meeting lasting a couple of hours” with some undisclosed individuals; however no further details were available on this count and could not be confirmed by another independent source. According to details, Nawaz Sharif landed in Dubai late afternoon and drove straight to the residence of Senator Ishaq Dar, whose son is married to Nawaz Sharif’s daughter. When contacted, Senator Pervez Rashid (PML-N) insisted that there was nothing unusual or “mysterious” about the visit and that Mr. Sharif had gone to Dubai to meet his daughter and to deal with some family matters. Responding to another query he said, “Mian sahib had planned this private visit for a while but we (party leadership) had asked him to postpone it because of the evolving political situation here at home. Now he felt that he could afford to take out a few hours for this visit,” adding, “Please do not read anything into a simple private family visit”. When asked about the need to keep the visit a secret, Senator Rashid shrugged off the assertion by saying, “It was a private visit, that’s why”. It may be recalled that in the past however, every time Mr. Sharif went on a ‘private’ visit either to the UK or the UAE, maximum media coverage was always ensured by his political aides and respectable sized reception parties were assembled at the destination airports. Why this past tradition was suddenly abandoned and a blanket of secrecy thrown over the visit, only time will tell.