ISLAMABAD, Nov 22: Prime minister-elect Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali moved quickly to promise on Friday to reward 10 dissident MNAs from the People’s Party Parliamentarians, whose key support ensured his election to the office on Thursday.

But the PPP condemned the move as an “invitation for floor-crossing and bribery” by Jamali, who is to take the oath of office on Saturday to lead the first civilian government after more than three years of military rule.

The promise for the unspecified benefit was publicly made after Jamali visited the residence of Faisal Saleh Hayat, group leader of the PPP’s so-called ‘forward bloc’ and said: “We will look after one another”.

“We are like brothers,” a private television channel quoted Jamali as saying and observing that those winning people’s mandate in an election must satisfy their constituents.

But, he said, members of parliament in a third world country could not meet people’s expectations by staying out of ‘power structure’.

While thanking the group for extending support to him in the prime ministerial contest, Jamali said: “Naturally, in power structure we are together. We will look after one another.”

He did not elaborate, but political sources said Jamali’s remarks could mean a promise of share in the cabinet and other political benefits for the dissidents.

“This is an open admission (of wrongdoing) and invitation to floor-crossing and bribery,” PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar told Dawn about Jamali’s statement.

The 10 ‘forward bloc’ members — all from the Punjab province — voted for Jamali in Thursday’s election for the leader of house in the 342-seat National Assembly through a division, ignoring a PPP directive to vote for their party nominee Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

The PPP said on Thursday before the vote it had asked Hayat and two other colleagues — Rao Sikandar Iqbal and Naurez Shakoor — to seek an interview with the party’s self-exiled chairperson, Benazir Bhutto, to explain their conduct within seven days.

“The party will proceed further after seven days,” Babar said. He said Benazir Bhutto had returned to Dubai on Friday after a long trip to the United States and the dissidents could contact her possibly by telephone.

Babar said notices had been issued to only three members because the party had hoped the other seven would follow the party policy.

But he said similar notices might now be issued to other dissidents as well for violating party directions which is punishable under the Constitution with unseating from the assembly membership.

But President Pervez Musharraf only partially revived the Constitution last week, keeping the anti-defection clauses under suspension.

Jamali won the prime ministerial contest by 172 votes against 86 of Maulana Fazlur Rehman of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and 70 of PPP’s Qureshi.

A vote less for Jamali would have necessitated a run-off poll between the two highest vote-getters until one of them got more than 50 per cent of the total House membership of 342.

The PPP says its members were coerced by authorities to change their political loyalties, a charge denied by the government and the dissidents, who accuse the party leadership of making wrong moves that deprived them of a role in government-formation.

Babar said the government was also trying to coerce PPP members of the Sindh Assembly to switch sides so the party could not form the government there. But he said: “We are confident they will not succeed.”