ISLAMABAD: Leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) opposed to the party’s possible alliance with the Pakistan People’s Party have geared up efforts to mend fences between the Chaudhrys and the PML-Q dissident group in order to pave the way for the party to join the Muttahida Muslim League (MML).
PML-Q Secretary General Mushahid Hussain Sayed was likely to meet PML-Functional (PML-F) chief Pir Pagara within the next few days to remove misunderstandings between the PML-Q, PML-F and the PML-Q dissident leaders. A source in PML-Q told Pakistan Today that Mushahid would first try to convince Pagara to not deal with the PML-Q dissident group as a separate political entity.
But another source said that the chances of Mushahid successfully convincing Pagara not to deal with the dissidents separately were very bleak, as the PML-F chief had already constituted an MML steering committee overrepresented by the like-minded men.
“The PML-Q secretary general and some other stalwart Muslim Leaguers are also trying to persuading the dissident group to rejoin the PML-Q so that the nascent PML alliance with the Q-League could be made lasting and vibrant,” said the source.
When asked why the PML-Q dissidents were so insistent on maintaining a separate political identity, a dissident group leader said, “The like-minded group takes the MML as an alliance of four factions of the PML, and will never relinquish its identity of a separate political entity because things can reach to such a point in future where the dissident group can be compelled to pull itself out of an alliance.”
Talking to Pakistan Today, PML-Q dissident group President Senator Salim Saifullah said the Chaudhrys had become “irrelevant”. “They first bring back 40 of their MPAs in Punjab and 20 MPAs in Balochistan before asking us to join the PML-Q,” he said, adding that several leaders and parliamentarians from the Chaudhrys camp had approached him with intentions to join the MML.
Saifullah said that the Chaudhrys were left with no option but to join the MML. “They cannot forge an alliance with the PPP as it is irrational and unnatural, and even Nawaz Sharif will never accept them and ultimately they would be forced by ground realities to join the MML,” he added.
