The PPP and the PML-Q, while maintaining their alliance, will field joint candidates in the upcoming by-elections as well as in the general elections.
The Punjab PPP President Imtiaz Safdar Warraich and PML-Q leader Kamil Ali Agha announced the decision while briefing reporters after a meeting of the leaders of the two parties held at the residence of Deputy Prime Minister Pervaiz Elahi.
Religious Affairs Minister Khursheed Shah, federal minister Rana Farooq Saeed, state minister Warraich, Haider Zaman Qureshi and MPA Aamir Dogar represented the PPP, while Shujaat Hussain, Elahi, PML-Q Parliamentary Leader in the Punjab Assembly Chaudhry Zaheeruddin, Moonis Elahi, Agha, Raja Basharat, Nasir Gil and Tariq Bashir Cheema represented the PML-Q in the meeting.
Warraich said both sides discussed in detail all the seats and the candidates for the upcoming by-election to be held in Lahore, Sahiwal, Sialkot, Gujranwala, Gujrat, and Jhelum, adding that joint candidates would submit their nomination papers on October 8.
He said both parties had also pledged to defeat the PML-N in the elections by taking all decisions with mutual consensus and also launching a joint election campaign.
PML-Q’s Agha said both parties were very serious and sincere in maintaining their alliance, and had discussed the election alliance in a cordial manner.
To a question, he said the meeting discussed the alliance for general elections in general and the by-elections in particular, as the by-elections were round the corner.
He said the meeting had developed a consensus over the joint candidates for the by-election. However, he said the parties’ leadership would make an announcement to that effect.
