Muqam and Yousaf may abandon PML-Q ship

Two disgruntled provincial presidents of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), Ameer Muqam and Jam Muhammad Yousaf, may defect from the party along with a number of PML-Q leaders and parliamentarians from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan if the Chaudhrys fail to secure lucrative ministerial berths for the duo from the PPP, Pakistan Today learned on Sunday. A source close to Muqam said that the disgruntled PML-Q KP president, after handing in his resignation as federal minister for production to party president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, was considering defecting from the party to either join ranks with the PML-Nawaz (PML-N) or establish an independent party of his own.
The source said that nowadays Muqam was touring the province to gather followers. “Once he succeeds in winning support of the PML-Q grassroots workers in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and woo party lawmakers from the province, he would likely break with the Chaudhrys,” said the source. “Ameer Muqam wants the portfolio of the Ministry of Water and Power and the licence for his private TV channel, but both of his demands are not being met by the PPP (Pakistan People’s Party) government. Muqam thinks that the Chaudhrys are also not using their good offices to get President (Asif Ali) Zardari’s nod on his demands,” said the source, adding that Muqam was in constant contact with some PML-N leaders since differences surfaced with the Chaudhrys in the wake of the PPP-PML-Q power-sharing deal. Muqam told Pakistan Today that he had resigned from the office of federal minister on the recommendation of the party’s provincial general council. “My decision is final because the PML-Q’ provincial general council’s reservations on the PPP-PML-Q alliance have not been addressed…
I have also asked Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain to forward my resignation to President Zardari and Prime Minister (Yousaf Raza) Gilani,” he said. However, despite differences with the party’s top brass he would remain part of PML-Q, he said. “I am not going to join the PML-N,” he said.
On the other hand, PML-Q leaders from the Chaudhrys camp claim that Muqam is requesting the Chaudhrys not to send his resignation to President Zardari and just use it as a ploy to win a lucrative ministerial slot for him from the PPP leadership. “Muqam’s basic reservation is with the delay from the government in awarding him licence for his Pashto TV channel,” a PML-Q leader said.
Like Muqam, Jam Muhammad Yousaf, National Assembly member (MNA) and PML-Q Balochistan president, is also annoyed with the delay in his induction into the federal cabinet. “The PML-Q top command had promised him on May 3 – the day PML-Q joined the coalition government – that he would be soon accommodated in Gilani’s cabinet, but despite the passage of one month no development took place in this regard,” said a PML-Q leader close to Yousaf who wished to remain unnamed. He said that PML-Q parliamentarians from Balochistan were also unhappy with the Chaudhrys as no MNA or senator from the province had been inducted into the federal cabinet from the PML-Q.