|
|
|
| September 16, 2003 | Tuesday | Rajab 18, 1424 |
Shujaat, Jamali in race for leadership: PML unification
LAHORE, Sept 15: Shujaat Husain or Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali will lead the unified Pakistan Muslim League as heads of the smaller factions are not in the race, leaders of various factions say.
The head of one faction told Dawn that in the presence of the Political Parties Order, Shujaat, not the prime minister, can head the unified party. But if Jamali wants to become president of the united PML, he will have to get the PPO amended first. The PPO says the government and party offices can’t be held by the same person.
Efforts are being made to bring the PML-Q, the PML-C, the PML-J and the Functional Muslim League on the same platform.
It is being claimed that important PML-N leaders will part ways with the Sharifs to join the united Muslim League. However, PML-N sources rule out any such possibility.
The leader of a Sindh-based faction of the Muslim League is of the view since the objective of merging various factions is to strengthen the party, the leadership should go to the prime minister. He said the prime minister also harboured the desire. At a meeting with Pir Pagara, Jamali recalled that from Liaquat Ali Khan to Nawaz Sharif the offices of the chief executive and the PML president had rested with the same person and the same arrangement should be continued now, he says.
It is said that Pir Pagara also supports the same point of view.
But the leader of yet another PML faction, who called on Pir Pagara recently, claimed that the spiritual leader’s point of view had not been properly understood. He said Pir had said it in so many words that the chief executive and the PML president should be the same person. But, he said, Pir had declared at the same time that “it is not a condition” for unification. He said Shujaat would be acceptable to all factions.
A leader of yet another PML faction said the party needed a man who could activate and popularize the party in all four provinces. In his words, the PML-Q president was not in a position to steer the party through difficult periods.
The move for leadership change has led to behind-the-scene lobbying by supporters of the prime minister and the PML-Q president.
Some party leaders say the party will be hit badly by the strategies the rival groups will prepare to achieve their goals at a time when talks with the MMA on the LFO have entered a decisive phase. They say instead of winning MMA’s support for the LFO, the ruling party will be creating groups in its own ranks if the unification move was pressed at this juncture.
Heads of various PML factions will be meeting in the federal capital during the next few days to discuss the modalities of unification.
|
|
|
|
