ISLAMABAD, March 29: The PML factional heads will meet here on Tuesday to hammer out the differences that have kept the unification/merger process from being accomplished during the last seven months, sources said.
Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain will preside over the meeting to be held at the residence of PML-Q secretary-general Salim Saifullah Khan. The last meeting, held in the first week of March, had remained deadlocked due to the PML-F's refusal to accept the S.M. Zafar formula which was based on unconditional merger of league factions.
The PML faction, led by Pir of Pagara, wants the unified league to adopt the PML-F constitution and also allocate party offices of choice to its members. A senior PML-Q leader expressed the view that if Tuesday's meeting failed to come up with a solution acceptable to the PML-F, then the unification process will go ahead without this faction.
Barrister Sultan Mehmood Khan, the acting president of PML-F told Dawn by telephone on Monday that there was no question of his faction going back on its original demands.
According to him, Pir Pagara, by stepping down as party president in favour of Chaudhry Shujaat, had offered quite a big sacrifice and in lieu of that he will expect other major party offices, going to his nominees.
Besides, he said, the party faction would expect appointment of its nominees as senior vice-presidents and secretary-generals etc in the provinces as well. About the S.M. Zafar formula, Mr Khan said those parts of the formula which lead towards unification, and not merger, were acceptable to his faction.
Tuesday's meeting, a PML source said, will expect a clear-cut response from the representatives of the PML-F about the queries that were communicated to them by Chaudhry Shujaat during the last meeting.
Sultan Mehmood Khan said that Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain had asked him to come back with instructions from Pir Pagara about the party constitution, distribution of party offices and other points relating to the formula.
