Move to repeal 58(2)b will be opposed, Shujaat tells Musharraf
By Our Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD, Feb 27: Pakistan Muslim League-Q president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi met President Pervez Musharraf on Wednesday and discussed the post-poll situation.
Another former chief minister of the province, Mian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo, also called on the president.
According to sources, the Chaudhrys assured the president that any move to repeal Article 58(2)b, which gives the president powers to dissolve assemblies, would be opposed.
However, the party’s secretary-general Mushahid Hussain Sayed took a different line on the issue during a TV talk show on Wednesday and said that the PML-Q would support a move to repeal 58(2)b.
Mr Wattoo’s meeting with President Musharraf is being considered here as significant because of reports that he is in the process of creating a forward bloc within the PML-Q in the National Assembly and in the Punjab assembly in a bid to obstruct the formation of coalition governments led by the PPP and the PML-N.
However, knowledgeable sources said the purpose of creating the bloc was to dislodge the Chaudhrys from the party’s leadership.
But, other sources said that the main objective of creating a faction in the PML-Q was to join the coalition governments led by the PPP and the PML-N.
They said the PPP and the PML-N were not ready to accept the ‘Q’ League led by the Chaudhrys. Some people in the Wattoo camp said the move was aimed at creating space for Mr Musharraf to help him retain the presidency.
