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| 12 May 2004 | Wednesday | 21 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425 |
PML unification plan hits snag
ISLAMABAD, May 11: The unification of five PML factions hit some serious snags on Tuesday when the ruling PML-Q and PML-F failed to fulfil the decisions taken by the faction heads in their joint meeting at the PM House on Monday.
The PML-Q postponed its general council meeting at the eleventh hour till 10am on Wednesday, while the Functional League refused to dissolve itself, leaving only three tiny PML factions and Imtiaz Shaikh's Sindh Democratic Alliance to hold their general councils separately and endorse unification plan by dissolving themselves.
The joint general councils' meeting will, however, be held at 11am on Wednesday at PML house on Margalla Road according to the already agreed programme. Under the plan, the joint meeting is to endorse the decision of unification, approve the new party constitution and hold election for new office-bearers.
The three factions which held their general councils were PML-Z of Ijazul Haq, PML-Jinnah of Mian Manzoor Wattoo and PML-Junejo of Hamid Nasir Chattha. Even though the PML-F of Pir Pagara backed the unification plan, it refused to dissolve itself until its demand vis-a-vis distribution of party portfolios was met.
The ruling PML-Q, instead of holding a regular general council meeting, held a consultative meeting at the party headquarters with Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain in the chair.
Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali met PML president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain at the latter's residence and after discussing the party's organisational as well as contentious matters for one and a half hour went straight to the general council meetings of four factions.
Interestingly, the party issued a late-night corrigendum about a news report earlier ran by the official electronic media regarding holding of PML-Q general council along with other league factions.
Talking to reporters and speaking at general councils, Mr Jamali said that he would like to participate in the process of consultation with other faction heads on nominations for the office-bearers, if so desired by the party president.
Without making a direct mention of his candidature for the post of secretary-general, the prime minister said: "It was up to the unified party to assign any job to any worker." But he hastened to add: "There were no differences on the party portfolios as Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain had been authorized to take decisions through consultation with faction heads."
Chaudhry Shujaat also endorsed the prime minister's assertions to the extent that no "major" differences remained in the party on organisational matters. He agreed with a suggestion that whatever differences were "sown" between him and Mr Jamali were the handiwork of some 'enemy'.
PML-F acting president Barrister Sultan Mehmood Khan was furiously against the dissolution of the party as he said: "We can be broken but cannot be cowed down". PML-F's chief organiser Kunwar Qutbuddin told newsmen after his faction's meeting that the party had decided to attend Wednesday's joint general council meeting with an open mind but it could pull out if factions' merger was suggested instead of unification.
Some PML-Q leaders, including Salim Saifullah Khan and senator Kamil Ali Agha, expressed anger against those who they said were sowing the seeds of dissension in the party.
They criticized the role of the Information Minister for wrongly attributing to Mr Shujaat a statement which purported to have sought the prime minister's apology in Monday's party heads' meeting for what had happened in Lahore's parliamentary group's meeting.
PML-Q's information secretary senator Tariq Azeem told Dawn that the party's general council will meet at 10am to adopt the resolution other factions had already passed on Tuesday.
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