ISLAMABAD Nov 12: Pressure is being mounted to create a situation in which president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, could be asked to resign his post to keep the party intact, informed sources told Dawn on Saturday.

Failure of a meeting between Chaudhry Shujaat and the forward bloc comprising dissident party MNAs on Friday “was a calculated move to sabotage any effort at reconciliation” after which the party chief had to leave for Lahore empty-handed, the sources said.

The group thus succeeded in getting signatures on a letter which seeks an early audience with the president and the prime minister in order to vent its grievances.

Riaz Pirzada, MNA, a member of the now dissolved Millat Party, spearheaded the campaign against the PML chief. He confirmed to newsmen that he had sent a letter to the president with signatures of 35 MNAs for an early meeting.

Another source claimed the group had also signed a letter seeking separate sitting arrangement in the National Assembly.

However, a few members of the forward bloc were still reluctant to come out into the open to confront the party chief till a meeting was arranged with the president. Every member of the group has his own grievances.

The sources claimed that the so-called forward bloc had emerged due to a variety of reasons, the chief among them being the “hegemony of Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Parvaiz Elahi on party affairs”. It has the blessings of forces opposed to the Chaudhrys of Gujrat.

The group is aggrieved “due to favouritism and cronyism promoted by the Chaudhrys” during the local government elections, defeating many of their sure winners, the sources claimed.

A source requesting anonymity said that Shujaat had soured his relations with President Musharraf, a reason why he has not been called for any meeting with him over the last couple of months.

The sources said that the forward bloc of 40-plus had prepared a charge-sheet against the party president, ranging from his personal intervention in the local government polls to depriving many groups of a berth despite having the backing of President Musharraf.

Mr Hussain is facing the most glaring allegation of failing to galvanise the party into a winning entity and that whatever successes the party candidates had achieved in the local government elections “were due to Gen Musharraf’s charisma”.

PML vice-president Syed Kabir Ali Wasti told Dawn that President Musharraf was not happy with the policies of Chaudhry Shujaat on a number of issues. For instance, he cited differences erupting on the passport issue, madressahs’ registration, troops dispatch to Iraq, and the curriculum issue.

While the president wanted to put the country on the path of enlightened moderation, Chaudhry Shujaat continued to stick to conservative leanings, which did not find favour with the president and “so he (Shujaat) has to step down as the ruling party head”, Mr Wasti said.

He claimed that the forward bloc will grow further as soon as things got clear.

He alleged that the party chief never convened a meeting of central working committee nor summoned the party’s parliamentary group meeting. Instead, he held coalition parliamentary groups’ meetings, which never met the demand of party stalwarts.

He claimed that there was a vast majority of parliamentarians as well as senior party leaders who wanted a change of guard at the top.

He said no forward bloc was being made in the party and “we will wage a constitutional struggle while remaining in the party”.