ISLAMABAD – Rejecting the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)’s proposal of taking the army and judiciary on board to resolve national issues, Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said on Thursday that it was the duty of people’s representatives and not of the judiciary and the army to devise national agenda. “It is the responsibility of the politicians who are people’s representatives to find ways to steer the country out of persistent crises and the army and judiciary should be spared to do their jobs,” Shujaat told reporters after presiding over a women’s workshop jointly organised by PML-Q Women Wing and National Democratic Institute (NDI).
Shujaat said no opposition alliance against the government was being made. “We want the assemblies to complete their tenure. The consultation meeting at Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman’s residence was meant to find solutions for national issues and I had also advised Maulana Fazl to invite the Pakistan People’s Party at the dinner,” he said.
He said the meeting was not meant to exert pressure on the government. “No Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI)-like alliance is in the making and there is no space for non-serious politics as every political party is doing-the politics of borrowing,” he added. On the question of possible components of PML-Q’s electoral alliance, he said the decisions in this regard would be taken six months before the next polls.
Responding to another question regarding the parliamentary judges committee’s decision of asking the government to file review petition on the Supreme Court’s verdict, Shujaat said there was no harm in it.
To another question, he said that the members of the Unification Bloc in Punjab would ultimately rejoin the PML-Q. Earlier Shujaat told the workshop that the PML-Q would work with likeminded groups in parliament to bring aboutlegislation providing penalty to those who deprived women of their right to vote.
