May 23, 2008	Friday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 17, 1429

ISLAMABAD, May 22: Pakistan Muslim League president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said on Thursday that his party did not wish to join the ruling coalition but would be ready to provide positive advice and cooperation to government.

Talking to a private TV channel, Chaudhry Shujaat clarified a media report suggesting that he had offered his party’s support to the PPP in Punjab and said that PML-Q’s stance was clear that it did not want to join any coalition.

The PML-Q president said he was not under any illusion about this party’s position since the February 18 election in which his party had received a drubbing.

The PML-Q leader said: “We will prove to the people that we can even serve them while sitting in the opposition and can offer our guidance if the ruling alliance so desires and we will extend whole-hearted cooperation.”

He said it was time for the ruling coalition to pay attention to the problems of poverty and price hike.

Referring to the formation of forward blocs in PML-Q, he said: “People make such groups to make themselves counted but in the end they have to return to their mother party.”