September 09, 2008	Tuesday	Ramazan 8, 1429

LAHORE, Sept 8: The PML-Q forward bloc is constituting a ‘volunteers’ group’ in the Punjab Assembly who will openly vote for Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif if he is asked to take a confidence vote from the 371-member house even if such legislators are disqualified subsequently on the charge of floor-crossing, says the head of the dissident group.

Mian Ata Muhammad Maneka told Dawn on Monday that the volunteers group would comprise such lawmakers who had won from their constituencies with big margins and were in a position to retake their seats in a by-election.

At present, he said, the forward bloc had 31 members in its fold, but the volunteers’ number would depend on the shortfall the chief minister would be required to meet to get the confidence vote, for which at least 186 legislators must be on his side.

The PML-N has 171 MPAs at present. The number of pro-Shahbaz legislators rises to 178 if the PML-F and MMA legislators are added up.

Mr Maneka said the PPP or anybody else would not be able to dislodge the Shahbaz’s government as the dissident PML-Q leaders were prepared to pay any price to retain him in the driving seat.

The leader from Pakpatten said the forward bloc was trying to woo more legislators to touch the magic figure of 42, which would give the group right to the post of opposition leader, dislodging PML-Q’s Chaudhry Zaheeruddin. Secondly, he said, the group would be allowed to elect its own parliamentary leader, without whose initiative no action would be possible against any of its members even on the charge of floor-crossing.

Mr Maneka said the forward bloc was now in a position to set the future direction of the Punjab politics.

The PML-N-led government, he argued, would not survive without forward bloc’s support in case the PPP parted ways on account of differences with the main coalition partner. Similarly, the PPP would not be in a position to lead the provincial setup even with the PML-Q’s support if the forward bloc did not join hands.

He said differences between the forward bloc and the Chaudhrys of Gujrat were too serious to be resolved in the foreseeable future. And there was no chance for them to take an identical decision on the question of helping the PPP set up its government in Punjab. He said because of the PML-Q and the forward bloc rift, the PPP would never be in a position to get the support of 186 members, the minimum required to bring about a change in the country’s biggest province.

Mr Maneka said the results of the presidential election showed that most of the PML-Q lawmakers had not voted for their party candidate, Mushahid Husain Sayed, which only meant that the future of the party was very bleak. Disappointed by the shape of things to come, he said, many more PML-Q people would like to join hands with the forward bloc.

According to him, Sargodha’s Amer Sultan Cheema was also in touch with Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and was likely to announce anytime his support for the PML-N along with his friends and colleagues.

He said Chaudhry Shujaat Husain, Mushid Husain Sayed, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and Chaudhry Zaheeruddin should resign from their offices on account of their failure to keep the party united.

“The party faced the first disaster in the Feb 18 election, and the split witnessed at the time the presidential election is another catastrophe. Now, there’s no justification for the top office-bearers to stay in their offices,” Maneka said.

The forward bloc chief said he and his colleagues had not attached any expectations to the PML-N. “All that we want is ‘treat us at par with other PML-N legislators’, and this they have already promised us.”

He said the forward bloc members would contest the next election on the PML-N tickets.