ISLAMABAD – Pakistan Muslim League-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain on Friday assured President Asif Ali Zardari of not letting the PPP coalition government fall and joining the coalition in case the MQM pulled out of the ruling alliance.
Shujaat had led a delegation of PML-Q leaders to meet Zardari at the Presidency late on Friday. However, the PPP-PML-Q power sharing talks remained inconclusive with Zardari insisting the PML-Q enter into a formal alliance at the Centre before launching a move against the Sharifs in Punjab.
However, the PML-Q refused to do so, saying it first wanted to win the Punjab government and that the Centre was their second priority. The PML-Q leadership assured Zardari of their full cooperation, saying they would not become part of any move aimed at dislodging the PPP government.
“Zardari asked the PML-Q to join the ruling alliance at the Centre first and then both parties could jointly evolve a strategy to complete the number game by winning back the PML-Q dissidents in Punjab in order to dislodge Shahbaz Sharif, but the Chaudhrys insisted focusing primarily on the Punjab government’s fall,” said a source.
The source said the Chaudhrys assured President Zardari of immediately joining the government at the Centre in case the MQM pulled out of the ruling alliance. “Shujaat told Zardari that the PML-Q would not become party to any attempt to destabilise the government, dispelling the impression that no grand alliance of opposition parties was in the making,” sources said.
The Chaudhrys thanked Zardari for his tacit cooperation in the Moonis Elahi case through FIA, while Ameer Muqam asked the president to use his influence for the release of license for his Pashto TV Channel WATAN NEWS, the source added.
Ghous Bux Mehar complained to the president about the Sindh government’s successive attempts to implicate him in false cases and said numerous fabricated FIRs had been lodged against his family. The president assured the PML-Q leaders of redressing their grievances at the earliest.
