April 10, 2008	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 3, 1429

LAHORE, April 9: The PML-Q has decided to boycott elections for speaker, deputy speaker and the chief minister in protest against manhandling of Arbab Rahim and Dr Sher Afgan.Pervaiz Elahi, party’s parliamentary leader, announced this outside the Punjab Assembly after attending the swearing-in ceremony of the newly-elected MPAs on Wednesday.

He said the PPP and the PML-N had trampled democratic traditions, which was evident the way they handled the issues of Arbab Rahim and Dr Sher Afgan.

The party, he said, had voted for premier Yusuf Raza Gilani in good faith and expected to be reciprocated in same terms, but, unfortunately, that had not been the case.

He said that both ugly incidents were pre-planned and smacked of democratic preferences of the new rulers. He, however, refused to accept the PML-N's plea that the caretaker government, which is still ruling the province, should be held responsible for the Sher Afgan incident.

“Everyone knows that the PML-N has informally taken over the provincial administration for the last one month,” he said and added that its selected bureaucrats were calling the shots in the province. How they could deflect the blame to the caretakers, he wondered.

Both these incidents were against the spirit of democracy and the PML-Q would not tolerate such incidents, he said.

The party would decide what course of action it wanted to adopt in the national assembly, but these incidents would not go un-noticed at any level, he said.

The PML-Q had earlier decided to field Asif Nakai for the post of chief minister and Sahba Sadiq as deputy speaker. It had already announced fielding of Mohsin Leghari for the speaker slot.