ISLAMABAD, Feb 24: The Pakistan Muslim League (Q) appeared on Sunday to be having second thoughts on its earlier announcement that it would sit in the opposition in the National Assembly.
In a meeting of the party’s MNAs-elect held at the residence of its president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, a number of participants said efforts should be made for power-sharing in a coalition government.
“This meeting of the PML-Q parliamentary party expresses its full confidence in the leadership of party president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and empowers him to hold talks with other parties,” a resolution adopted at the meeting stated.
Chaudhry Shujaat told journalists that all but three MNAs-elect of the party had attended the meeting. Sources said former chief minister of Punjab Mian Manzoor Wattoo, who had attended the meeting on Saturday, did not turn up on Sunday. Mr Wattoo is reported to be working on forming his own group to negotiate with the PPP and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz).
A PML-Q leader said Mr Wattoo had contested the election as an independent candidate and he would be invited to the parliamentary group’s meeting only if he joined the party.
Chaudhry Shujaat was quoted as saying that there was no second opinion about the party’s continued support for President Pervez Musharraf as it had elected him for a five-year term.
He alleged that the PML-N wanted to occupy the Supreme Court on March 9 just like its workers had stormed it when they were in power.
The PML-Q president said the party was united and ready to play the ‘second round’ in parliament.
He said the party’s parliamentary leader in the National Assembly would be named in a couple of days.
Former chief minister Chaudhry Parvaiz Elahi said all decisions in the meeting had been taken unanimously.
The party’s chiefs in Sindh and Balochistan, Arbab Ghulam Rahim and Hamadan Bugti, and secretary-general Mushahid Hussain also attended the meeting.
Chaudhry Shujaat will preside over a meeting of the party’s senators on Monday morning to chalk out a strategy for the next Senate session.
