October 25, 2002	Friday	Sha’aban 18,1423

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ISLAMABAD Oct 24: The Pakistan Muslim League (Q), which was expected to announce its prime ministerial candidate on Thursday, delayed the decision till the election schedule for the women reserved seats.

Informed party sources said that the decision was postponed due to differences, which have erupted between party top brass besides the pressure of various interest groups and the group of those leaders who have lost their seats in the elections.

However, it was cleared at the briefing by the party leaders that Zubaida Jalal was not a party candidate for the top slot.

Mian Azhar told newsmen that today’s meeting was held to get briefing from the parliamentary party leader, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, on the negotiations which he had held so far with other political parties and groups.

Chaudhry Shujaat said the president had the discretion to announce schedule for elections to the reserved seats and we have to wait for the same before announcing our candidate. Moreover, he said, we would also consult whoever out of two groups (PPP and MMA) became our partner in coalition to finalise our candidate.

He said today was the last day for independents to join any party, which after completion the PML(Q) tally of membership, had risen to over 90.

He claimed that the PML(Q) was showing great restraint in playing its power game against the others like MMA who had announced their nominee for prime minister’s slot in a haste without knowing that first right on forming government rested with the majority party.

When his attention was drawn to the MMA’s tough stance of not compromising on its premiership candidate, Chaudhry Shujaat said: “Let it be discussed on negotiations table with them and we will be able to convince them not to be inflexible.”

The sources said the decision to nominate Mir Zafarullah Jamali as party candidate for prime minister was almost final as far as Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain group was concerned.