PML-N gears up efforts to divide Chaudhrys’ camp

In a bid to make its ‘Go-Zardari-Go’ movement purposeful at all costs before the Senate elections, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has started wooing PML-Quaid MNAs in the Chaudhrys’ camp after succeeding in winning support of the PML-Likeminded and PML-Q’s independent bloc of senators.
A source in the party told Pakistan Today that PML-N President Nawaz Sharif had assigned party leaders to contact PML-Q MNAs who were still affiliated with the Chaudhrys of Gujrat and had staged mutiny against party’s decision of joining the PPP-led coalition government. He said the PML-N’s current anti-government move was being supported by a minority group of PML-Q MNAs. “Hamayun Saifullah Khan and Kashmala Tariq are with us from the platform of the PML-Likeminded, while some others like Sumera Malik, Asim Nazir and Khadim Hussain Wattoo have also informally joined the PML-N ranks in their individual capacity,” he said, adding that a number of PML-Q dissident MNAs who were previously part of the likeminded group had now disassociated themselves from the PML-Likeminded and rejoined the Chaudhrys camp after the PPP-PML-Q power sharing deal.
“The PML-N leaders as well as the central command of the PML-Likeminded is lobbying to win back the support of Talib Nakai, Dewan Ashiq Bukhari, Riaz Fatiana, Sadiq Khan Baloch, Nauman Langrial and others who were once associated with the PML-Q dissident bloc in the National Assembly,” he said. The source said the PML-N had assigned Kashmala Tariq to rope in PML-Q MNAs from Sindh, including Arbab Zakaullah, Dr Ghulam Hyder Samejo and Ayaz Ali Shah Sherazi.
A source in the PML-Q said a central leader of the PML-N also called on PML-Q’s Parliamentary Leader in the National Assembly and Housing Minister Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat on Wednesday to seek his support for the PML-N’s anti-government drive. “Some other prominent leaders of the Nawaz-led Muslim League are in constant contact with PML-Q ministers, including Sheikh Waqas Akram, Riaz Hussain Pirzada and Rana Asif Tauseef,” said the PML-Q source, adding that the PML-Q parliamentarians from the Chaudhrys camp had rejected PML-N’s offers. A central PML-Q leader said the PML-N leaders had told Q-Leaguers that their party was determined to topple the Zardari-Gilani-led government before March to sabotage the Senate election.
He said some other PML-Q MNAs, apart from those affiliated with the PML-Likeminded, had reservations with the Chaudhrys, like Awais Ahmed Leghari, but they were also against the Sharifs. “To counter the Sharifs’ campaign of robbing PML-Q men, the Chaudhrys of Gujrat have also launched a drive of appeasing disgruntled elements and Chaudhry Shujaat met Amir Muqam and Raza Hayat Hiraj (two disgruntled PML-Q ministers) on Wednesday and assured them that their concerns would be addressed,” the source said. A PML-N leader seeking not to be attributed said his party was not interested in winning support of PML-Q senators. “We are being supported by an independent bloc of PML-Q’s five senators leaded by Senator Tariq Azim … the senators belonging to the PML-Likeminded are also with us … we do not want to rope in the senators standing with the Chaudhrys … as the term of all PML-Q senators is ending next year except that of Shujaat, they are political outcasts, hence bear no political value for us,” he said.