LAHORE, Oct 28: PML-N patron Nawaz Sharif assured party’s women leaders here on Tuesday that he had a soft corner for the PPP only in the larger interest of the country.

“For the security and survival of the country, I have a soft corner for the PPP government otherwise there is divergence of views with it on many issues,” he told women wing office-bearers and women MPAs from Lahore.

He said he had accepted the PPP mandate because in 1971 denial of the mandate (of the Awami League) had resulted in bifurcation of the country. Pakistan was facing multiple crises and he did not want to destabilise it in any manner, he said.

The former prime minister said he would not accept alliance with the elements who had stabbed in the back of the party when Pervez Musharraf staged a military coup against the PML-N government in 1999.

He said his party would fully support the lawyers’ movement for the independence of the judiciary and appealed to the masses to take to the street on Nov 3 to observe a black day against imposition of unconstitutional emergency and illegal removal of around 60 judges by Musharraf on the day last year.

Meanwhile, Mr Sharif phoned Ali Ahmad Kurd to congratulate the latter on his success in the Supreme Court Bar polls with a thumping majority.