LAHORE – The Unification Bloc, a group of 47 Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) dissident member of the provincial assembly (MPA), on Thursday said that they will issue a show cause notice to Punjab Opposition Leader Chaudhry Zaheeruddin in retaliation to his notice to their group members.
Talking to journalists after meeting Punjab Assembly (PA) Speaker Rana Iqbal, Unification Bloc leader Dr Tahir Ali Javed said that Zaheeruddin had no authority to issue a show cause notice to them, as they have the support of a majority of PML-Q MPAs.
He said that they would challenge Zaheeruddin’s opposition leader status, as now he only had 32 MPAs on his side. Javed said that it was astonishing that the minority was ruling the majority. “How can a person representing only 32 MPAs seek an explanation from the people enjoying support of 47 out of total 87 party members”, he questioned.
The Unification Bloc leader said that the notices were illegal and unjustified, as their group had not done any extra constitutional step by seeking a separate identify in the assembly.
The former Punjab health minister said that according to rules, alegislator could be issued a notice if he votes against the party line while electing the CM or PM or on the finance bill but they have done nothing like this so why notices were being issued to them.
Javed said that the notices were an attempt to prevent further disintegration in the PML-Q vowing that another four PML-Q MPAs are ready to join their group. He said that they would not let the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government to fall in Punjab and support the party in all difficult times.
Javed said that they would make a final decision after consulting other Unification Bloc members and if the PML-Q tried to make an alliance with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in Punjab, it would further disintegrate. The Unification Bloc hoped that the diagram containing the new seating plan in the House would be issued before the next assembly session in the second week of March.
Talking to journalists, Iqbal said that he would not deviate from the rules of business and every decision would be made according to law. Explaining his position on the Unification Bloc issue, the speaker claimed that he did not do any extra constitution step and followed the ruling of former PA speaker Afzal Sahi regarding the forward bloc in 2002.
