July 14, 2007	Saturday	Jamadi-us-Sani 28, 1428

LAHORE, July 13: A former adviser to Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi from Bahawalnagar and a ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) leader from Raiwind joined the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on Friday.

Ex-adviser Shaukat Ali Lalika announced to join the PPP along with 25 union council nazims from Bahawalnagar. The PML-Q defectors from that city also included Mian Tariq Amin Hotiana, who contested the previous election on a ruling party ticket.

Rana Tariq Mahmood, who contested the 2002 election from Raiwind on the PML-Q ticket, said he was joining the largest political party of the country along with four office-bearers of the Lahore PML-Q.

Both of them made the announcement at separate news conferences called by Punjab PPP President Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

Speaking at the press conferences, Mr Qureshi said the tide had been turned on the ruling party and more and more of its leaders and office-bearers from across Punjab were defecting to the PPP. It was for the first time that those belonging to the governing party were defecting to an opposition party, he said.

He claimed that some provincial ministers were also in contact with the PPP, but refused to disclose their names. “We shall reveal their names when the time comes.”

When asked if the PPP’s campaign for this year’s election will focus on the PML-Q or President Pervaiz Musharraf or both, he said it would focus on the ruling party.

But he sought to dismiss reports that the PPP was nearing a deal with the president.

Supporting the military action against the alleged terrorists, who were holed up in Lal Masjid/Jamia Hafsa, he expressed grief over the loss of lives. He demanded that a judicial inquiry or a parliamentary commission should be set up for investigating the entire events that had led to the military action so that the people could know as to how terrorists had got themselves holed up there and gathered such a big stock of weapons.

The PPP leader did not sound hopeful about the future of the recently formed All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM), an alliance of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) and several other political parties, in London a couple of days ago.

He defended the PPP’s decision to stay away from the new alliance, saying it was not part of the agenda of the All-Party Conference (APC) called by the PML-N. “Besides, how can the MMA become a part of an opposition alliance while it ruled the NWFP and sat with the PML-Q as its coalition partner in the Balochistan government?” he asked.

The PPP leader said his party still considered PML-N and its exiled leader, Nawaz Sharif, its political ally. He said the PPP wanted the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) to continue.

He said the PPP would announce a schedule of public meetings and rallies next month to mobilise public on issues it wanted to raise during the election campaign.