October 23, 2006	Monday	Ramazan 29, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 22: The Pakistan People’s Party (Patriots) is divided over the question of its merger with the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, as suggested by President Gen Pervez Musharraf, with the Sherpao faction opposing it and the Punjab group led by Defence Minister Rao Sikandar Iqbal supporting the proposal.

Sources said that a delegation of the NWFP chapter of the PPP-Patriots had recently held a meeting with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz where it transpired that the faction led by Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao was ready to enter into an electoral alliance with the PML instead of merger with it.

Talking to Dawn after the meeting, Mr Sherpao said he had asked the premier that the PML and his faction could win majority seats if they made an electoral alliance on the provincial level.

On the other hand, Mr Iqbal is on record having said that the party would go by whatever Gen Musharraf decided on the issue.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Sher Afgan Niazi, who is a senior leader of the Patriots, said so far as the party’s 17 MNAs from Punjab were concerned they would welcome the merger, but “I can not say the same about the two MNAs from NWFP”.

Talking to Dawn, he said: “We support President Musharraf on his policies and will welcome it if he asks us to merge with the PML.” Mr Niazi said Patriots would have no problem in working with the PPP if it joined the government as a result of some deal.

The sources said that some PML leaders had reservations about the way the PPP-Patriots worked and were, therefore, opposed to the merger.