ISLAMABAD, Feb 20: PML-Q president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has convened a meeting of PML-Q leaders in Islamabad on Saturday to discuss the election debacle and the current political situation.
In a related development, Chaudhry Shujaat and former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Parvaiz Elahi are reported to have met President Pervez Musharraf on Wednesday and discussed with him the post-election scenario and the future strategy with regard to the formation of governments at the Centre and in Balochistan where PML-Q has emerged as the single largest party.
The president, the sources said, told the two leaders that parties other than the PML-N should be persuaded to form a government at the Centre.
A party source confided to Dawn on Wednesday that the main purpose of the meeting of PML-Q leaders convened by the party chief was to take defeated and successful party candidates into confidence on the party’s line of future action.
The sources said that at least nine newly elected lawmakers of the PML-Q were planning to join the PML-N. The sources said that most leaders of the party were not happy over the nomination of Chaudhry Parvez Elahi for the post of prime minister.
The sources said that a former chief minister of Punjab and head of his own faction of the PML, Mian Manzoor Wattoo, who has been re-elected to the NA, was likely to revive his own faction.
Similarly, the sources said, former minister Ijazul Haq was also reported to be reviewing his affiliation with the PML-Q and might revive his ‘Ziaul Haq’ faction of the PML which he had merged with the PML-Q.
Sardar Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari who has won his seat is reported to be upset over the defeat of his son Owais Leghari and he too is likely to review his affiliation with the PML-Q.
