LAHORE – The attendance of only 22 members of the Punjab Assembly out of the 80 who were invited to the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) Unification Bloc’s meeting here on Friday shows that all is not well in the bloc’s camp.
Unification Bloc’s parliamentary leader Dr Tahir Ali Javed claimed, however, that around 41 legislators from the bloc had attended the meeting, invitation cards for which were issued by Chief Minister’s Secretariat with its official stamp. The less-than-expected participation in the meeting was proving to be a nightmare for the bloc, political pundits declared.
On the other hand, a changed political climate in Punjab has forced the dissident group to announce that they are unwilling to join the provincial cabinet and would extend unconditional support to the PML-Nawaz to “save” the Punjab government. Javed told reporters that the bloc’s parliamentarians had been helping the Punjab government and would continue their positive politics in future.
He announced that the bloc had decided not to accept ministries in the Punjab government. “Being allies of the PML-N, we have the right to ministries but the decision against accepting ministerial slots has been taken to set an example of sacrifice,” he stated. Tahir said further that the UB had also decided to resign from 11 standing committees in favour of the PML-N.
He said that the bloc parliamentarians had remained steadfast during governor’s rule in Punjab and they would remain steadfast in their support for the PML-N. Javed said that the disqualification reference against bloc members filed by Chaudhry Zaheer with the Punjab Assembly speaker was “unconstitutional, unlawful and immoral”, adding that the bloc reserved the right to take action against the movers of the reference if they did not cease their “illegal” tactics.
He said further that other PML-Q members were also invited to the meeting but they did not attend and might be issued notices for that.
