The Chaudhrys’ efforts to convince Pakistan Muslim League-Q Parliamentary Leader and former housing minister Faisal Saleh Hayat to join Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf’s cabinet have ended in a fiasco, as the latter is not ready to work under the controversial Raja. A reliable source in the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid told Pakistan Today that though Hayat had cast his vote for Pervez Ashraf on request of Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Pervaiz Elahi and Moonis Elahi who visited his residence on Friday (June 22), their efforts to convince him to work in Raja’s cabinet had ended in vain. “Faisal Saleh has finally told the Chaudhrys that he would not take oath as the federal minister,” the source said, adding that now the portfolio of housing ministry would go to some other PML-Q MNA. The source said apart from intra-party differences on ministerial berths, the issue of Faisal Saleh Hayat was also the reason behind PML-Q’s staying away from the oath-taking ceremony held on Friday night. The source said that the portfolios of PML-Q ministers would be decided today (Sunday) after which they would take oath. “Senior Minister Pervez Elahi will have powers nearly equal to the prime minister though the legal hitches in his way to become deputy prime minister may take some time to be removed,” he added.
