Former chief minister Punjab Chaudhry Pervez Elahi said on Friday that he had “enough experience” to know that efforts bear no fruit whenever anyone sits with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on the negotiation table. Speaking to a private TV channel at the Lahore High Court (LHC) ahead of a hearing, Elahi said the PTI’s intensions are good but he could not say the same about the PML-N’s camp. “I have enough political experience to be able to say with confidence that negotiations are fruitless whenever the PML-N sits with a political party on the table for negotiations,” he said. He regretted the cases being registered against the PTI leadership saying “FIRs are the oldest trick the PML-N has deployed to pressurise the negotiators”. “But this time we will not let them succeed,” added Elahi. When asked if he saw elections in the foreseeable future, he said he saw “Supreme Court’s orders” instead, stressing that the PTI will accept the apex court’s verdict on the issue of the provision of elections. On another query about PML-N supremo and former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif’s remarks dismissing the PTI’s demands as being nonsensical, Elahi said “he should first return to Pakistan and then comment on the PTI’s vision”. LHC’s Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh granted protective bail to Elahi until May 6 in a case registered by Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE). The FIR nominated Elahi among seven accused for having comitted corruption and causing loss to the national exchequer by awarding development projects to favourite companies and contractors.
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