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Monday, May 05, 2008

We won’t quit from PML-Q leadership: Shujaat, Elahi

* Shujaat tells party that Musharraf discussed leadership change with him
* Says Zardari wants Chaudhry cousins to step down

By Qamar Jabbar

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and PML-Q Punjab President and Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly (NA) Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi have assured senior party leaders that they will not resign from their party offices under any pressure, sources said on Sunday. The sources quoted Shujaat as telling party leaders in a meeting that President Pervez Musharraf had asked him about changing the PML-Q leadership. Shujaat said he had informed Musharraf that the PML-Q would be abolished if Shujaat and Elahi stepped down. Shujaat told the meeting that Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari wanted the support of the PML-Q at the Centre to run the government, as the PPP co-chairman was tired of his coalition partner, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). Zardari: Shujaat said that Zardari had conveyed to Musharraf through a presidential aide the view that the PPP was ready to negotiate with the PML-Q to form a coalition at the Centre, if the Chaudhry cousins were removed from its leadership. Zardari had suggested Hamid Nasir Chatta and Faisal Saleh Hayyat for the offices of the PML president and general secretary, respectively, because they both had past affiliations with the PPP, Shujaat said. The sources quoted the PML-Q president as saying that the party had repeatedly requested Pir Pagaro to assume the office of the party president but he refused, citing a lack of interest. Participants at the meeting expressed fears that most PML-Q parliamentarians would either defect to the PPP or the PML-N after the Chaudhry cousins stepped down from the party leadership, adding that this move would strengthen the PPP in parliament. The participants asked Shujaat to talk to the PPP, and if Zardari wanted the PML-Q’s support then he should present his agenda and start negotiations with the incumbent PML-Q leadership. Senator Nisar Memon, NA members Marvi Memon, Nosheen Saeed, Sheikh Waqas Aslam, Riaz Hussain Pirzada and others were also present at the meeting.
Courtesy Daily Times

 

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