February 23, 2008	Saturday	Safar 15, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Feb 22: Follow-ing the withdrawal of police contingents from the PML-Q secretariat (PML House) after the Feb 18 polls, the party leadership is reported to have decided to employ security by a 200-strong private security force, called the Wajahat Force.

The Wajahat Force is maintained by Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain, MNA-elect and younger brother of PML-Q president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain.

The sprawling PML House gives a deserted look these days with no party official turning up following the party’s defeat in polls. A senior PML-N leader and a former secretary general of the party, who had signed the purchase deed of the PML House, told Dawn that the issue of regaining control of the place had not come up for discussion and it might be raised after the new government takes over.

PML-N secretary information and MNA-elect Ahsan Iqbal said: “No measure can stop the rightful owner from regaining control of the PML House.”

When asked when would that happen, he said: “When the judiciary will become independent. They (the PML-Q) will themselves hand it over to the legal owners.”

The building had been purchased by former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif and it was registered in the name of Sartaj Aziz, then secretary general of the party.

Mr Iqbal said the control of the PML House was taken over by the pro-Musharraf League in 2000 by using administrative force as well as intelligence agencies.