May 29, 2007	Tuesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 12, 1428

KARACHI, May 28: Enraged over the May 12 carnage in the city and Gen Pervez Musharraf’s insistence on keeping the Muttahida Qaumi Movement on board, some parliamentarians and office-bearers of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League are reported to be preparing to launch a ‘forward bloc’ in the party.

According to sources in the party, some of the estranged legislators, who in the recent past had taken a defiant stand against the party leadership’s decision concerning a bye-election, are expected to visit the metropolis soon to muster support of those leaders in the province who hold the MQM responsible for the May 12 bloodbath in Karachi.

The sources said that the legislators had informed the president that it may not be possible for them to get along with the MQM.

“They also conveyed their discomfort to party chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain following President Musharraf’s instructions to keep the MQM on board, at all cost, and said that the May 12 bloodbath had badly hurt the party in an election year and it will be difficult for them to seek public support,” said the sources.

Those critical of the party policy on Karachi killings, the sources said, included PML office-bearers and lawmakers representing constituencies like Attock, Chakwal, Jhelum, Mandi Bahauddin, Gujranwala, Lahore, Toba Tek Singh, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Jhang, Gujarat, Khanewal, Bhakkar, Khusab, Layia, Okara, Kasur, and Dera Ghazi Khan down to Rahimyar Khan.