ISLAMABAD - At a time when all the political groups have been gearing up for election campaigns, intelligence agencies have shared with the government a secret report putting top political figures, including former premier Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, on a Taliban hit-list.

There are serious threats to Sharif brothers although ruling PPP’s Fakhar Imam and Shia Ulema Council head Allama Sajid Naqvi are also Taliban targets, it sounds the alarm.
Quoting TTP (Punjab) commander Matiur Rehman, the report states that since months, groups of Punjabi Taliban have been planning to attack Sharif brothers.
Following this embarrassing revelation, a wave of fear and disappointment has made way in the PML-N rank and file.
Talking to this scribe Thursday, top PML-N leader Senator Pervez Rashid categorically denied any life threats to Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif, saying “There is no credibility in the report about threats to the party leadership.”
An independent source, however, confirmed the authenticity of the report, and said that Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan’s South Punjab wing had been prowling to attack the Sharifs.
In September this year, news items quoting an intelligence report claimed that several leading politicians, including Nawaz Sharif, his brother Shahbaz Sharif, were on the hit hit-list of the TTP.
In December 2011, five alleged terrorists, apprehended by law-enforcement agencies in twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, disclosed that they were on a mission to target prominent politicians. The suspects belonging to Swat and Kabul told investigators that prominent politicians and parliamentarians were on their hit-list.