Moves for dialogue.

PML(F) Secretary General Muhammad Ali Durrani has met National Assembly Leader of the Opposition Shehbaz Sharif in jail with a message asking him to play a due role in arranging a national dialogue, which indicates that the establishment is now pulling out all the stops to prevent resignations from the Assemblies. Mr Durrani's party is part of the GDA, which is a government ally, but his own links to the establishment go back to the time he worked with the Zia regime on the Afghan jihad of the 1980s. It appears the offer he brought included that of release of PML(N) and PPP leaders. Mr Sharif pointed out an obvious reason why the government's policy of ruthless suppression will not work: imprisoned, he can only persuade visitors not to resign.

It would seem the government and its backers are doing their best to create divisions within parties, after having failed to create divisions in the PDM parties. Maulana Fazlur Rehman has already faced turbulence in his party, created by the Balochistan party, with stalwarts like Maulana Muhammad Khan Sherani and Hafiz Hussain Ahmad. Mian Shehbaz is accounted as being more peaceable and subservient than his elder brother...

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