LAHORE – With the Pakistan Muslim League-Q’s Unification Bloc facing a troubled situation and members getting out of control, bloc leader Dr Tahir Javed called an emergency meeting of the party on Friday in the committee room of the Punjab Assembly.
In a shrewd tactical decision, Javed invited not only the original bloc members but the rest of the PML-Q parliamentarians to attend the crucial meeting as well, which was followed by a grand feast. “We have been served notices of disqualification, but we have invited all, even dissident legislators, of the PML-Q to join us in the meeting as a gesture of good will,” said Javed.
“They are still our brothers and colleagues and the meeting has been called to provide a joint platform so that we can woo them to join us or they can convince us to reunite with them through strong arguments,” he said, adding that all options were still open because everything was possible in politics. Unification Bloc sources told Pakistan Today that the meeting was meant to serve four purposes.
“One is to sit together with old mates to explore commonalities, if possible, to stay united to make more gains. Second is to prove that the party is the genuine PML-Q on the basis of numbers. Third is to keep everyone in the group united and raising their moral with assurances that the bloc will have its due share in the cabinet, and the fourth is to brainstorm on the agenda of proposing ministries and parliamentary secretaries,” the sources said.
A bloc member said that the meeting had to be called in a hurry to stop the furious race for ministries amongst the members who had started forming groups within the bloc to secure a place in the new cabinet. Another member who wished to remain unnamed said that the PML-Nawaz (PML-N)’s farce could not continue.
“We have passed various litmus tests and it is the time to get rewarded, otherwise we have a contingency plan to cope with any untoward situation.” A senior leader said that the members of the bloc were in a catch-22 situation. Despite being loyal to the PML-N against all odds over the last two years, they were still unsure if they would be part of the cabinet, and if they were left out of it, they would neither have moral grounds to return to the mother party nor could they justify their presence in the PML-N, he added.
Javed said he was absolutely certain that if the bloc became a coalition partner, it would be incorporated in the cabinet. Sacrifices would never go in vain and new allies would benefit from all perks and privileges, he added. “We expect around 5 ministries and around 10 parliamentary secretaries,” Tahir said.
PML-N senator Pervaiz Rashid denied any assurances of cabinet positions to the bloc. “We practice principled politics and uphold our norms at any cost,” he added.
Tahir calls Bloc’s meeting, invites PML-Q as well
