FAISALABAD, Nov 16: The local leadership of the PML-N is divided over the issue of holding a demonstration on Nov 20 to protest the arrest of party chief Makhdum Javed Hashmi.

The PML-N city, headed by its president, former MPA Khwaja Muhammad Islam, is actively preparing for the demonstration with the support of former MNA Sher Ali and his son MNA Abid Sher Ali, MPAs Ijaz Ahmed Sheikh and Malik Nawaz and a number of party office-bearers and former parliamentarians.

However, PML-N district president former MNA Chaudhry Safdar Rehman, former MNA Mian Abdul Manan and a large number of former ticket-holders and party activists are not too enthusiastic in this regard.

Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly, Rana Sanaullah Khan, is trying to conciliate between the two groups.

Sources close to the PML-N leaders said it was a tug of war between former MNAs Sher Ali and Mian Manan, both of whom had not only been involved in mudslinging campaigns against each other in the past but had also resisted the allotment of tickets to each other’s sons for seats in the National Assembly in the general election.

The jailed party chief, Makhdoom Hashmi, had himself requested these leaders to shun their differences in the larger interest of the party during his last visit to the city. But both Sher Ali and Mian Manan refused to do so.

The fact remains that the Sher Ali group has a good grip on party’s local chapter and could stage a big demonstration in the city with or without the support of its rivals.