PML-Likeminded leader Arbab Ghulam Rahim lands in Lahore

LAHORE: Arbab Ghulam Rahim, a former provincial chief minister and the head of the Pakistan Muslim League-Likeminded (PML-L), has arrived in Pakistan, Geo News reported.

Rahim, who was in self-exile in the UAE for quite a while now, strategically chose to land here at the Allama Iqbal International Airport to avoid possible arrest.

According to sources, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had already made arrangements to accord him a warm welcome.

Speaking to the media at the airport, he said that his homecoming was purely voluntary, adding no one had forced him to return to Pakistan.
“I am here on my own free will. I had already disclosed my repatriation plans”, said he.

To a question about his upcoming political activities in Punjab, he said meetings with the PML-N leadership topped the list of his political priorities.

“I will first call on Shahbaz Sharif and then PML-N president Mian Nawaz Sharif. The rest comes later”, Rahim said.

Earlier, throngs of PML-N workers gave him an ardent reception at the airport for which an emotional Rahim thanked them duly.

Reportedly PML-N and the PML-L had reached an agreement on seat adjustment in the upcoming elections.

Elected on a party ticket of the PML-Quaid, Rahim was elected to the Sindh Assembly in the 2002 elections and was initially inducted as a provincial minister.

Subsequently, he was elected from PS-60 Tharparkar-I as the CM in 2004 after defeating Engr Gianchand Meghwar in the 2002 general elections. Rahim remained the CM Sindh from 2004 to 2007.

After developing differences with the PML-Q, he established a forward bloc within the party and was elected as its president on February 12 last year.Sources said the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) had persuaded Ghotki’s Mehars and Thatta’s Shirazis to join the party, and was now trying to win over Tharparkar’s Arbabs.

Sources confirmed that the PML-L had been holding parleys with the PPP, adding that the PML-L had now reached an agreement with the PML-N.

Rahim had gone abroad after a PPP member had hurled a shoe at him in the Sindh Assembly when Rahim had arrived to take oath as a member of the house.

Due to Rahim’s absence for 40 consecutive days from the sittings of the provincial assembly, the house had declared his seat vacant on March 22 last year.