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- April 23, 2024
- Kainat Shakeel
- 0
LAHORE: Nawaz Sharif, the supreme leader of the PML-N, departed for China on Monday on a five-day visit described as “low-profile.” The ruling party has declined to provide information regarding the itinerary. Attaullah Tarar, the minister of information, and Marriyum Aurangzeb, the spokeswoman for the PML-N, declined to confirm the older Sharif’s “unannounced visit” to Beijing. “About Nawaz Sharif’s visit to China, I don’t know,” Mr. Tarar said to Dawn. Dawn was informed by a PML-N minister that the older Sharif had departed for China for a “private visit.”
According to media sources, the visit is “personal,” and he will meet with some Chinese firms for development projects in Punjab, where his daughter Maryam Nawaz is the chief minister, and have a “medical check-up.” Ishaq Dar, the foreign minister, is accompanied by Junaid Safdar, Maryam’s son. The elder Sharif’s visit’s goal was not discussed with the party leadership, a source close to the Sharif family informed Dawn. The party and the PML-N administration are unaware of [Nawaz Sharif’s] itinerary for his journey to China.
He remarked, “Perhaps some of the elder Sharif’s closest friends would be aware of the precise purpose of his visit. According to the insider, there was conjecture within the party circles regarding the possibility that the senior Sharif had a “special assignment” in China that his younger brother, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, was unable to fulfill. Nawaz Sharif has never visited China in the past for medical reasons, preferring to travel instead to London, where he has undergone multiple procedures. Most recently, he remained there from 2019 to 2023.