KARACHI:Unification of PML may take months, says Chattha
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Dec 7: Pakistan Muslim League leader Hamid Nasir Chattha has said it would take at least three-four months to restructure the unified PML.
The party’s central organizing committee is not functional at the moment and the lone office-bearer, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain (President), has just returned from abroad.
Mr Chattha, who was chief of the now defunct PML-J and a member of the six-member organizing committee, was talking to a group of newsmen at a function organized Amanullah Paracha, a local leader of the Tehreek-i-Insaaf, at his residence on Sunday. Mr Paracha announced his joining of PML along with his supporters on the occasion. The ceremony was addressed, besides Mr Chattha, by Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh, Nisar Memon, Shaikh Sirajuddin, Iqbal Dar and others.
Mr Chattha described the restructuring of the party as a gigantic task which, he said, would take several months to complete as all provisions of the Constitution and other requirements pertaining to merger of factions had to be fulfilled.
In reply to a question, Mr Chattha pointed out that there was no office-bearer functioning except for the party chief and he, too, had been abroad. As such, he added, the committee had not been able to discharge its responsibilities.
The PML chief is likely to convene the committee’s meeting in the next three-four days to chalk out a strategy for reorganization of the party, according to Mr Chattha.
About the ongoing talks on Legal Framework Order (LFO) between the PML and Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, he said that in view of the sensitive nature of the issue, it was decided that any statement on the subject would be issued only by Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali or the PML chief. However, he said, certain reports appearing in the press suggestedthat a consensus on the issue had almost emerged and that nobody should worry about it.
Mr Chattha was asked about a possibility of some sort of understanding between the PML and PPP in the context of his closeness with the latter’s chairperson Benazir Bhutto, he replied that in the greater interest of the country, talks could be held with any party.
When his attention was drawn to the growing opposition in Sindh to the Kalabagh Dam, he said: “water reservoirs are the need of the hour in view of the water shortage being faced by the country for the past many years.”
Due to the attendance by a large number of Amanullah Paracha’s colleagues, the ceremony turned out to be a public meeting.
Welcoming Mr Paracha and the other new members, Mr Chattha said that the PML was not the fiefdom of any individual, nor did it believe in heritage. They party upholds democracy and practises democracy by holding elections for all its office-bearers. “As long as I am alive, nobody would dare to disintegrate the unified PML,” he declared, and invited all those weary of factionalism to join the party.
Shaikh Sirajuddin was graced with ‘golden crown’ to mark completion of his 50-year association with the PML.
Earlier, Mr Paracha spoke on behalf of the newcomers and remarked that all those present at the ceremony repose their full trust in the leadership of the PML and its chief Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain.
Sunni Tehreek leader Maulana Iftikhar Bhatti also attended the ceremony.
