A majority of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) leadership’s complaints are against Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, prodding the party ministers to submit their resignations with Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain the other day in a disturbing political development that came as the PPP government faced embarrassment at the hands of hostile opposition on account of excessive power outages across the country.
There is a belief in the PML-Q’s camp that the prime minister is not very “sincere” with the Q league or pursuing their alliance as being envisaged initially. As such, he is little interested in accommodating PML-Q ministers and MNAs, which hurt their political prospects back in their constituencies, observed a PML-Q leader. “As opposed to our grudges against PM, we are fully satisfied with the conduct of President Zardari and find him totally committed in pursuing ties with the PML-Q,” he further claimed.
Funds the real issue: The biggest grievance of the PML-Q ministers and MNAs is the unavailability of development funds at a time when the momentum for the next general election has started building, with politicians returning to their electorates. Interestingly, the demand for funds from PML-Q is coming at a time when the country finds itself in a bind due to financial crunch, with liquidity problem being the root-cause of most of its woes on the development front. At a recent reception hosted by the prime minister in honour of PML-Q leaders, the Chaudhrys raised the issue of funds’ non-availability for his party men.
“The release of funds is very crucial for us especially when election is not that far off now. We need funds equal to the ones given to the PPP parliamentarians to cater to the needs of our constituents but we are not getting any money despite repeated requests to the government. On the top of it we have to face the music when we visit our constituencies on account of excessive load shedding and hike in fuel prices,” said a senior PML-Q leader.
Party sources said the prime minister was not letting Pervaiz Elahi use the State Guest House in Lahore as his secretariat, let alone helping him make it a fully functional secretariat of the PML-Q. They said a functional secretariat with full backing of the government and resolving public problems could go a long way in balancing out the PML-N and could be equally beneficial for the PPP. The PML-Q leaders are also not very happy with the prime minister’s frequent visits to the state guest house.
“Giving a building to set up secretariat is not enough. The prime minister should give an enabling environment to deliver from the Secretariat,” he said.
