While there is virtually a complete consensus among the parliamentarians of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) on accepting President Asif Ali Zardari’s offer to join the ruling coalition and enter a long-term political partnership with the PPP, the Chaudhrys are facing resistance from some non-parliamentarians of the party.
A source in the PML-Q told Pakistan Today on Friday that the Chaudhrys would announce joining the PPP-led coalition government once they remove concerns of some of party elderly leaders who are neither member of the Upper House nor of the Lower one. “In the last few weeks, the Chaudhrys have consulted almost all party senators and MNAs and they are on board on striking a power-sharing deal with the PPP but some leaders, including former district and tehsil nazims, are opposing the PPP-PML-Q alliance,” the source said.
He said some former PML-Q MNAs and senators were also against forging an alliance with the PPP. “Such leaders think that the power-sharing deal between the two parties will only benefit the sitting parliamentarians of the PML-Q as some of them will secure ministerial slots and receive mammoth development funds from while the party’s non-parliamentarians will remain empty handed,” said the source.
The source said for allaying concerns of such leaders, the Chaudhrys had told them that the PML-Q had asked the PPP government for advisory positions to accommodate party’s non-parliamentarians. The source said the Chaudhrys had also told the opponents of the PPP-PML-Q alliance that they could be accommodated on the seats in the upcoming Senate elections as that adjustment was also the part of the power-sharing deal.
“The president has promised the Chaudhrys that the PPP will give four to six seats to the PML-Q in the upcoming Senate elections,” the source said.He said a few former PML-Q MNAs were resisting the move as they thought that they could lose the next elections or even fail to get a party ticket if the political partnership deal was finalised.
As an example, the source said former National Assembly speaker Ameer Hussain was resisting the deal fearing that the PPP-PML-Q alliance could deprive him from his seat as the Chaudhrys could ask him to not contest next general election against Firdous Ashiq Awan under a possible seat-adjustment formula with the PPP.
Another source in the PML-Q said some leaders of the party were seeking the slot of the National Assembly speaker in exchange of one or two offered ministries. “Riaz Hussain Pirzada and Ghous Bukhsh Mehar are the ones who are floating the idea in the party,” said the source, adding that the party MNAs who had previously joined the PML-Q forward bloc – the PML-Likeminded – had started contacting the Chaudhrys on the advice of the PPP leadership.