Opening the doors of reconciliation between estranged bedfellows of two factions of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) – the PML-Nawaz and PML-Quaid – three senators of the newly-founded PML-Q Independent Bloc on Saturday met PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and pledged their full support for the party.
Senators Tariq Azim, Javed Ali Shah and Naeen Hussain Chattha’s meeting with the PML-N chief was held at Punjab House, in which both sides discussed the overall political situation of the country, particularly the prospect of PML-Q members rejoining the PML-N. The meeting was held a day after the PML-Q Independent Bloc of five senators was allocated seats on the opposition benches in the Upper House.
The dissident bloc of five senators includes Senators Azim, Shah, Chattha, Jamal Leghari and Gulshan Saeed. A source in PML-Q dissident bloc of senators said that after a long wait, the PML-N had opened its doors to the PML-Q dissidents, but on the condition that some marked men who had been close aides of former president Pervez Musharraf would not be accommodated in the PML-N.
Commenting on the meeting between the senators and Nawaz, a PML-Q leader said that the PML-N’s isolation had at last compelled its leadership to embrace Musharraf’s associates. “Where are now the slogans of the Sharifs’ that they would never accept Musharraf’s men?” he said. Senator Azim told Pakistan Today that both sides discussed the role of a joint opposition in the coming days. Azim said his group of senators was not going to join the PML-N.
“Rather, we will continue working in coordination,” he said, adding that Nawaz was in favour of improving the working relationship between various opposition parties.
