March 17, 2008	Monday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 8, 1429

LAHORE, March 16: Three more members-elect of the Punjab Assembly and as many of the National Assembly reportedly decided to desert the

PML-Q on Sunday to join the forward blocs in the respective houses.

The fresh turncoats -- Shaukat Aziz Bhatti (PP-4, Rawalpindi), Engineer Qamarul Islam (PP-5, Rawalpindi) and Pir Rafiud Din from Southern Punjab, will take the tally to 18 in the provincial assembly, according to a claim by the forward bloc leaders.

In addition to these, three National Assembly members-elect have also decided to leave the PML-Q ship. They include Nazir Jat from Burewala, Sadique Baloch from Lodhran and Khadim Hussain Wattoo from Bahawalnagar.

Wattoo, who was elected on both National Assembly and provincial assembly seats, has decided to quit the latter and join the forward bloc in the lower house of the parliament. Earlier, he had decided to quit the National Assembly seat but his colleagues convinced him to do otherwise because the forward bloc at the national level was considered more `worthwhile’.

"In the provincial assembly, things are more or less clear; the PML-N would form the government," says one of the deserters. Things are more in murkier waters at the national level, where many forces are out to disrupt the people's mandate, he added.

The forward bloc leaders had also decided to ask their followers to quit provincial assembly seats wherever possible, he said.

He said many more colleagues were waiting to jump "the sinking ship of PML-Q."

The presidency was trying to hold the PML-Q together as artificially as it manufactured the party out of nothing. With president weakening by the day, the PML-Q was in for hard times as far as its unity was concerned.