ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) leadership is in a state of shock over the appointment of the party’s MNA Hamid Yar Hiraj as Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) chairman after Hiraj allegedly told Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani that Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain supported his appointment as the ERRA head.
A source close to the PML-Q president told Pakistan Today that Shujaat was neither consulted nor informed. “It came to us as a surprise,” he said, adding that more shocking was the message that Hiraj conveyed to the PM that he had talked to his party president who was comfortable with this move and “he (Shujaat) will thank you (Gilani) for offering this position to the PML-Q.”
However, insiders say there is much more than what meets the eye. “It’s all politics… maybe the PPP is now paying back in the same coin… once the Musharraf-backed PML-Q had separated a group of the so-called patriots from the PPP to join his bandwagon and Hiraj was one of them,” a PML-Q leader said.
The already embattled PML-Q – with a group of likeminded parliamentarians challenging the Chaudhrys’ control over the party and another group (the unification bloc) supporting the PML-N in the Punjab – now appears to be losing even those like Hiraj who have been sitting on the fence for a long time.
Analysts say if the Chaudhrys did not get the decision reversed, a number of disgruntled PML-Q men might take the same route to secure their political futures. Upset with the impression created by Hiraj’s appointment that the PML-Q had tacitly agreed to join the government and support it on the GST bill, Pervaiz Elahi on Wednesday announced to forcefully oppose the controversial tax law.
Addressing PML-Q workers, Elahi said a wrong impression was being created that the party had struck a deal with the government. “The PM did not talk to me and Shujaat over Hiraj’s appointment,” he said.
