LAHORE, Sept 25: In a dramatic move, the MNAs and MPAs from Hafizabad who had resigned from the assemblies two days ago, announced their rapprochement with the ruling party in the presence of Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi here late on Thursday night.

The announcement was made at a hurriedly called press conference at the residence of the chief minister during which the Hafizabad legislators dropped all their previous charges against the government.

The chief minister said all ‘objections’ by the Hafizabad legislators had been amicably removed after a meeting, and “they are with us as they have been in the past”.

The chief minister and the legislators who earlier had a meeting before the press conference, denied that the later had tendered their resignations.

The legislators at the press conference included MNAs Chaudhry Mehdi Hasan Bhatti and Liaquat Abbas Bhatti, Punjab Culture Minister Shaukat Ali Bhatti, Standing Committee on Health chairman Dr Muzaffar Ali Sheikh and MPA Sardar Muhammad Rafiq Gujjar.

Speaking on their behalf, Dr Muzaffar Sheikh said they had not tendered resignations but had instead only talked of it to register their protest over “the state of affairs” in their district.

He said there was no doubt in saying that the conditions in Hafizabad had gone from bad to worst because of the “administration”. They had considered it better to leave their seats in the assemblies after finding it hard to resolve the problems of their voters.

Mr Sheikh said the Hafizabad legislators conveyed their protest to the top leadership (the chief minister) which had now promised to redress all their grievances. “Right now we don’t have any objection against the government,” he said, reposing the confidence of his colleagues in the PML-Q leadership.

He said the complaints of the legislators were about rising crime in the district and corruption among its government functionaries. The chief minister had promised to redress all problems and improve the law and order all over the province, especially in Hafizabad, he said. Mr Sheikh said the chief minister had also promised to announce a development package for Hafizabad during a visit to the district in the last week of October.

“Our protest was based on principles and there was no personal motive. The chief minister is our elder brother and has removed all our objections,” he said.

Replying to questions, Mr Sheikh denied that the resignations were an attempt to blackmail the government. Hafizabad already had a ministry and other important portfolios and there was no question of seeking anything like this, he said.

He denied that he had predicted the downfall of the government while talking to reporters on Wednesday and said he had only indicated the lack of its writ in the province. “We had only talked of resignations and had not tendered them,” he claimed.

The chief minister said he had on Tuesday said that the legislators had not tendered their resignations and despite having the right to protest they were with the party. “Today this has proved true and they are with us,” he said.

He said normally MPAs used to talk of resignations while trying to lodge their protest under pressure from their voters in an emotional way.

The chief minister said there was no question of neglecting Hafizabad with regard to development activities. The Punjab government had given huge development funds to all district governments and was itself conducting development activities with the World Bank and ADB loans all over the province.

He said the Hafizabad legislators had not sought more ministries nor had demanded transfer of their district SP.

When asked whether the resignations from the Hafizabad legislators would motivate others to adopt the same method for seeking favours, the chief minister said he had been asking all treasury MPAs during the party meetings to fulfil their responsibility of strengthening democracy.

It was their duty to get their differences resolved in a positive manner and fulfil their responsibility towards democracy. They would have to control their emotions and prove through their traits that the politicians were able to run the system, he said.

The chief minister parried a question about the degrees of some of the Hafizabad legislators and about a PML-Q leader’s newspaper allegations against them.