The annoyed and disgruntled Pakistan People’s Party MPAs from Punjab are going to hold a consultative meting here on Friday to finalise future strategy of the group, Pakistan Today has learnt. This would be the first get together of sitting legislators of PPP who have reservations with the party leadership. It has also been learnt that the two MPAs from Multan who have boldly expressed their loyalty to former foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi would not attend the PPP parliamentary meeting scheduled today (Friday) at Governor House, where they are expected to explain why they were present at Qureshi’s Ghutki public gathering where he announced his joining PTI.
The sources privy to the whole development told this scribe that this group of PPP disgruntles under the influence of Qureshi had decided to not to put up with the party’s incumbent leadership. They further said the rebels were very clear on their stance and even though they would not resign immediately, they would also not conform to the party’s rules either. These MPAs wanted to enjoy the perks of being a member provincial assembly till the constitutional tenure of present assemblies. However, on the occasion of any disruption in the present government’s tenure, they would join Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf(PTI). Sources added that the majority wanted to remain under cover and only Malik Abbass Raan and Dr Akhtar Malik had come out to show open support for Qureshi.
They added that there are at least 9 MPAs that were not happy with the party and who would continue to recruit more rebels under Qureshi’s secret auspice. “We are not happy with the options the party has presented to us since we threatened that we would form a forward bloc in Punjab Assembly,” one of the dissenters said. Raan while talking to Pakistan Today said he was bound to the PPP because of the constitution otherwise he would have joined Qureshi, adding that he and his colleague would not attend the meeting at the Governor House. Another group of dissenters have claimed to have at least 19 PPP MPAs under its wing. It should be mentioned here that PPP has a total strength of 105 members in the Punjab Assembly. Most of the dissenters are from southern Punjab.
