Despite a lapse of almost two weeks, the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) leadership has not been able to decide whether or not to send references against its eight members of National Assembly under the defection clause for violating party discipline during the election of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf.
Those likely to face disciplinary action include six MNAs linked with the PML-Likeminded –Humayun Saifullah, Kashmala Tariq, Ghulam Haider Samejo, Arbab Zakaullah, and Kishan Chand Parwani. Moreover, MNAs Sumaira Malik and Awais Leghari may also face the music.
Chaudhry Pervez Elahi had also refused to include senior politician Mian Riaz Hussain Pirzada due to his close links with the leadership of the PML-N as well as the PPP. A well-placed source said after being appointed the deputy prime minister, Elahi wanted to differentiate between friends and foes within the party as a preparatory measure for the upcoming general election and had decided that only trusted friends would be given important slots. The source said Pirzada had also opposed a party nominee for a recent by-election held in Yazman, Bahawalpur, due to local grouping and rather he had supported a PML-N nominated candidate, who eventually lost the poll.
“Tariq Bashir Cheema, the former nazim of Bahawalpur, had reported the matter to Elahi and Shujaat and it was decided that whenever the party would have a chance, Pirzada would be axed,” the source said. Pirzada had no clue about what was cooking in the minds of the Chaudhrys and only came to know when he was not invited to take oath recently when around 25 PML-Q members were inducted in Pervez Ashraf’s cabinet.
The source said the decision to send references was made to send all the eight MNAs home under the defection clause, but party president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain was against the idea. “The references issue has been stalled for two major reasons. Chaudhry Shujaat is opposed to the idea and also Wasim Sajjad, the major member of the committee to prepare the references, is seriously ill,” the source said. He said due to the same reasons, the three-member committee formed to prepare references had not met even once during the past fortnight. “Failing to get Wasim Sajjad in the committee, Pervez Elahi contacted SM Zafar for the references preparation, but still there is no development,” the source added.
When contacted, Dr Khalid Ranjha, a member of the three-member committee on references, told Pakistan Today that the committee had not met even once and neither had he been invited for the meeting.= “I suppose SM Zafar is working on the references,” he said. PML-Q Secretary-Information Senator Kamil Ali Agha told Pakistan Today that the references against the party defectors were still pending due to illness of Wasim Sajjad. Asked whether there was a difference of opinion among the party leadership over the references issue, Agha said there was unanimity of view that the references would be sent to the NA speaker. The source asserted that the leadership of the PML-Q was still divided over the issue of references.
