99 percent of PML-N’s senior leadership not participating in rally: Chaudhry Nisar

ISLAMABAD - Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Thursday denied that he had ever said that back pain had caused him to abstain from the PML-N rally in Islamabad, stating that 99 percent of the senior party leadership had not taken part in the rally.

“Why am I only being singled out?” he asked. “I never said that I would drive Nawaz’s car to Lahore,” he added.

Chaudhry Nisar further conveyed that he himself never attributed his non-participation in the rally to health reasons or back pain.

Nisar’s spokesperson said that the media was attributing a statement to him which he had never made in the first place.

The former interior minister urged media persons to verify statements before attributing them to him on national media.

The ousted prime minister is leading a procession, along with the PML-N leaders as he heads towards his hometown, Lahore, via the Grand Trunk (GT) Road. There has been much speculation as to why his party's most senior leadership has refrained from accompanying him on the journey.

Reports had earlier suggested that Nisar has been away from the ongoing ‘homecoming’ rally of Nawaz Sharif owing to ‘back pain’.

Nisar, the former interior minister, did not see off Nawaz when he departed from Islamabad for his GT Road rally on Wednesday.