ISLAMABAD – Anticipating reunification of various factions of Muslim League in near future, Pakistan Muslim League-Likeminded President Senator Salim Saifullah on Friday said that he was expecting general elections in 2012.
“The various factions of Pakistan Muslim League will ultimately reunify…they will unite on one platform against the Pakistan People’s Party,” he said in an exclusive talk with Pakistan Today.
Admitting that the move to reunite various factions of Muslim League on the platform of Muttahida Muslim League (MML) had hit snags, Saifullah said that he was confident that the political needs would ultimately bring estranged bedfellows on one forum. “The MML failed to be a big hit because of PML-N and PML-Q’s refusal to join the four- party alliance of Muslim Leagues,” he added.
When asked whether he was seeing the formation of a grand opposition alliance against the government in the backdrop of joint walkout of opposition parties, Senator Salim Saifullah said that it would be before time to predict the formation of such an alliance. “But, the joint strategy of opposition parties on presidential address was a good step in the right direction,” he said, adding that the PML-Likeminded was striving for the last three years to unite opposition parties.
Saifullah said that the governance of the PPP government was earning bad name for democracy. “It is the united opposition that could only press government to mend its ways…..A common man in the streets is now questioning the benefit of democracy,” he said, adding that a strong dynamic opposition was the need of the hour. Criticizing the government’s approach of luring the opposition through various tactics, he said: “The robust opposition keeps the government on its toes which is in the interest of the country and nation.”
He said other state institutions were transgressing their limits as the rulers had failed to uphold the supremacy of the parliament. “Taxes are being imposed by the ordinances… No one from the parliamentarians knows about government-IMF talks…and all crucial matters are not shared with the parliamentarians by the government,” he said.
Saifullah said the government could ease its troubles by using the collective wisdom of the parliament. He blamed that it was rulers’ approach of undermining parliament’s supremacy was compelling the Supreme Court to decide matters either they were relating to the rental power plants or reemployments on contract after retirement.
Brushing aside the impression that PML-Likeminded had any kind of tact understanding with the PPP, Saifullah said that any alliance with the PPP was ‘out of question.’ He said he was in contact with Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif ‘and I am trying to bridge gulf between different breakaway factions of Muslim League.’
“I have advised the Sharifs to see the big picture and avoid going into unnecessary details,” he added. Senator Salim Saifullah, who also chairs Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, said that there was marked improvement in relations between Pakistan, Afghanistan in the last two years.
When asked whether some leaders from his party were still in same wavelength with former president Pervez Musharraf, he said no PML-Likeminded leader had any contact with Musharraf now. “They parted their ways with Musharraf when he rejected their advice to not enter into politics,” he added.
