Fissures have started to appear in the PML Likeminded over a possible alliance with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) for the next general election.
A source in the PML Likeminded told Pakistan Today on Saturday that the party’s chairman Hamid Nasir Chattha, along with some other leaders, expressed serious reservations over the party’s proximity with the Sharifs in the party’s steering committee meeting held on Saturday. The source said in the meeting, PML Likeminded President Senator Salim Saifullah and Secretary General Humayon Akhtar supported the idea of forging an alliance with the PML-N.
“However, the proposal became a bone of contention when the senior members including Chattha and Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri, the former foreign minister, rejected the proposal,” the source said. He said the members also discussed the alliance with other political parties including the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf and the PPP-Sherpao.
Talking to Pakistan Today, Saifullah admitted that Chattha was opposing PML Likeminded’s alliance with the PML-N. “We have decided to first strengthen the party in the country and then go for forging an alliance with other political parties including the PML-N,” he said. Saifullah said the egos of some politicians from other political parties were damaging the interests of the country. “It was a brain-storming session of the party and the consultations will continue in our party,” he said.
Asked to comment in the delay in holding intra-party polls, Saifullah said some leaders of the party were suggesting a delay in the polls. “I want early elections as I personally want to hand over the presidency to someone else in the party,” he said. Meanwhile, Sindh MPA and PML-Q Sindh Information Secretary Nuzhat Pathan called on Saifullah at his residence to join his party.
