LAHORE, Oct 24: The PML-N elders are falling ill one after another after being continuously ignored by the leadership.Though he himself would not admit it, circles close to PML-N Information Secretary Mushahidullah Khan say he had developed heart problem after remaining under permanent stress of being ignored by party chief Nawaz Sharif since coming into government.

A cancer patient who underwent surgery twice in the country and once in London to cure the disease, Mushahidullah was admitted to the Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology the other day for his angioplasty after he felt pain in his chest.

Former information secretary Siddiqul Farooq is also reported to have been hospitalised recently for treatment of hypertension.

Another central leader, who did not wish to be named, told this correspondent that he had become insomniac because of the cold shoulder the leadership was showing to him since the party assumed power.

On the other hand, since their appearance on the political horizon three decades ago, Wednesday, Oct 23, was the first day when all four active members of the Sharif family were away from Pakistan.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the family head, was in Washington to call on US President Obama. His nephew, Salman Shahbaz, was accompanying him to the US. Salman, though neither a member of the federal cabinet nor of parliament, was to work on energy matters there.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif was in China to explore energy cooperation possibilities with Xinjiang province, while Hamza Shahbaz was in Kyrgyzstan to attend a two-day Global Snow Leopard Conservation Forum there.