The Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) has refused to allow the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) to take on board its members likely to defect to the PML-Nawaz and the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI).
A source in the PML-Q told Pakistan Today that PPP leader Faryal Talpur, who is in Lahore nowadays to mobilise her party, sought permission from Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi to take into PPP’s fold PML-Q leaders likely to join Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan, as the move would prevent the opponents of the allied ruling parties gain strength. However, the Chaudhrys told Talpur not to steal their members, and that the PML-Q would soon control the frequent defections to other parties. A PML-Q leader said that when both the PML-N and the PTI were inducting PML-Q heavyweights in Punjab, the PPP was not doing so because of an agreement between the Chaudhrys and President Asif Ali Zardari to respect each other’s mandate. “Now, the PPP leadership has started realising that its policy of closing doors to PML-Q leaders was damaging the political interests of both the PPP and the PML-Q, as some leaders from the Q-League who have joined or intend to join either the PML-N or the PTI were also interested in making individual deals with the PPP,” he added.
Recently, a group of PML-Q senators, including Tariq Azim, Javed Ali Shah and Naeem Chattha recently met Nawaz Sharif, while a number of heavyweights such as Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Sikandar Bosan, Ishaq Khakwani, Senator Jamal Leghari, Col (r) Ghulam Sarwar Cheema, GG Jamal, Senator Mohabat Khan Marri, Awais Legari and others are set to join the PTI. Former PML-Q parliamentarians Ghulam Murtaza Maitla and Asghar Shah, and former Tehsil Nazim Qalandar Hussnain Shah have already joined the PML-N. Commenting on defections from the Q-League, a central party leader said unless the Chaudhrys controlled defections, the proposed seat adjustment between the PPP and the PML-Q for next elections could not be reached. “A majority of sitting parliamentarians affiliated with the Chaudhrys fear that their immediate defection would deprive them of huge development funds being provided by the prime minister. Once development schemes are completed, they will not wait for a minute to become turncoats,” he added.
Chaudhrys bar PPP from inducting Q members
