LAHORE, Oct 28: Three smaller factions of the Pakistan Muslim League have expressed reservations about the organizational work being carried out by the PML-Q, specially in the Punjab, despite a principled decision that five groups will merge themselves into a single entity.

They think that after such a decision any organizational activity should be conducted from the platform of the unified party.

The matter was taken up by the groups led by Hamid Nasir Chattha, Ejazul Haq and Mian Manzoor Wattoo with the Functional League president, Pir Pagara, who immediately sent an emissary, Sheikh Sirajuddin, to Lahore to discuss the matter with Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi.

Sheikh Siraj, who has been appointed secretary of the unified party to be led by Chaudhry Shujaat Husain, told Dawn here on Tuesday that he had discussed the matter at length with Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and was informed that he was organizing the party at the district level to enable it to rout its opponents in the next elections. Complacency on this front, the chief minister told him, would benefit the adversary.

Mr Siraj said he fully agreed with the spirit with which the Punjab chief minister was trying to strengthen the party in the country’s biggest province. He said if the ruling party was to effectively take on the parties in the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy and sweep the next elections, it would have to address all its weaknesses without loss of time.

The chief minister told Sheikh Siraj that leaders of other factions would be accommodated in the new organizational setup. However, before such appointments the party would have to fulfil legal requirements for the merger.

According to Mr Sheikh, the chief minister will host an Iftar-dinner for leaders of other PML factions to discuss the matter with them and convey a message to the opponents about unity in their ranks.

Sheikh Siraj said he had also met the relevant authorities of the Election Commission of Pakistan with the request that five PML factions should be treated as one, and registered as the Pakistan Muslim League. He had been informed about the formalities he was required to meet.

Mr Siraj will now contact other factions before approaching the ECP afresh. He said once the unified PML was registered, the Election Commission would be approached to get any party using this nomenclature de-registered.