LAHORE, March 3: Pir Pagara, who was re-elected unopposed president of the PML (Functional) within 35 minutes after his resignation at a party meeting on Sunday, declared that he would soon move the Supreme Court for an injunction that any other party should be prohibited from calling itself Pakistan Muslim League as his was the only party which had the recognition of the apex court.

Party sources say that the court would be moved after the completion of the electoral process at all tiers in about two months. They said the Election Commission would also be approached to seek de-recognition of the parties registered as PML.

The Pir made a brief speech at the meeting before announcing his resignation. Then he moved to his office, in a corner of the same hall where the session was in progress, witnessing the subsequent proceedings through a glass window. Some of the participants repeatedly chanted slogans of “na-manzoor” (not acceptable) while secretary-general Rana Muhammad Ashraf Khan invited vice-president Khan Sultan Mahmood Khan to preside over the session to elect a party chief in accordance with the provision of the constitution.

Provincial President Sheikh Anwar Saeed proposed the name of Pir Pagara for re-election, which was seconded by many council members from the Punjab. No one from any other province was invited for secondment, and a senior party leader later said while speaking to Dawn that it had been done to refute the impression that the Pir did not have support in the Punjab.

Within no time the whole process of election was completed and the Pir was back in the saddle, profusely garlanded, amid a thunderous applause by the council members.

The existing team of the central office-bearers has been retained with the addition of Syed Shakir Ali Rizvi as new information secretary.

The FML chief said that his party would contest the ensuing general elections in cooperation with the PML-N, a delegation of which party had held extensive talks with the Sindhi leader a night before.

The gesture, the Pir said, did not mean that the two parties had united. Interestingly, the two groups have divergent views on almost all important political issues. According to senior joint secretary Sheikh Sirajuddin, the FML recognises Gen Musharraf as president of the country and has no objection to his staying in the coveted position for any number of terms, accepts his right to amend the Constitution and form a national security council, if necessary. He said his party also wanted a new constitution as the 1973’s had taken away all rights from the provinces.

The PML-N both in its individual capacity and as a component of the ARD and the APC does not agree with any of these points.

A party leader said that the re-election of the Pir was a message to the other factions that the Pir would not accept the leadership of anybody else even in the case of unification.

The gesture of cooperation with the PML-N, he said, was a signal to the PML-QA that the Pir was no longer willing to join hands with them. Individuals from the rival group, he said, could be accepted to the PML-F fold, if anyone was willing to cross over.

The house empowered the Pir to take decision on electoral adjustments with the other parties. However, alliance has been ruled out.

The PML factions still interested in unification, party sources say, will have to approach PML-C President Hamid Nasir Chattha, authorized by the Pir to hold talks for the purpose.

Answering a question, the Pir said he did not see the general elections taking place in the “near future”. However, he did not give any reasons nor say when they were likely to be held.

The FML chief predicted a bright future for his party, saying it was a grouping of the “blessed” people. In his assessment, the hazy political situation would be clear in the next few months after which he would call another meeting of the party to take new decisions.

Sheikh Sirajuddin said while holding a copy of the Holy Quran in his hands that PML-QA leader Chaudhry Shujaat Husain had told him by the phone that a decision on the new president of the unified PML would be taken by the army.

The participants condemned the killings of Indian Muslims and called for steps to bring them to an end.

They strongly supported Gen Musharraf’s policy on Kashmir.