Senior Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders have warned their party chief Nawaz Sharif against forming an alliance with Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) in Punjab and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) in Balochistan and Hazara division.
According to a local newspaper, they endorsed a seat-to-seat adjustment with other political parties in Sindh.
Nawaz, his younger brother Shahbaz Sharif and other senior leaders of the PML-N central parliamentary board held a meeting on Monday in Lahore, during which they discussed reports of the party’s possible alliance with other political parties.
According to sources, during the meeting, a majority of the senior leadership opposed PML-N’s alliance with JI in Punjab, saying the latter was demanding seats which PML-N had won in the 2008 general elections. Nawaz asked whether the JI had provided any other options, but was told that the party was refusing to budge from its stance.
The senior leaders went on to suggest that the party chief negotiate with the JI for seat adjustment in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
The meeting also discussed a possible alliance and seat adjustment between PML-N and JUI-F. Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s party wantes to focus on getting seats through the alliance from Balochistan and the Hazara division of KP. However, senior leaders told Nawaz that the PML-N had already issued tickets for Balochistan for the upcoming polls.
They said that the party could not afford to annoy their applicants in Balochistan for the sake of meeting JUI-F’s demands. They further said that the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) was also an ally of the PML-N in Balochistan and advised Nawaz to give preference to PkMAP over JUI-F.
Furthermore, the senior leadership also rejected the JUI-F’s offer of seat adjustment with the PML-N in Hazara division.
Nawaz directed negotiators to talk to JUI-F over seat adjustment in other areas of K-P apart from the Hazara division.