PESHAWAR: Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain on Saturday asked former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to clarify his statement that his party would contest the next elections against the ‘aliens’.

Addressing a function held here to inaugurate the party’s secretariat, the PML-Q president said it was evident that the PML-N had a horrifying future as its leadership had adopted extremely irresponsible and derogatory policies against the state institutions.

He said the PML-N leadership was bent on defaming the Pakistan Army by calling it ‘aliens’ and that such utterances went against the national interest.

Mr Shujaat asked Mr Nawaz to name the ‘aliens’.

“Nawaz Sharif must clarify his statement on the khalayee makhlooq (aliens),” he said.

The PML-Q president said 12 of the sitting federal ministers belonged to his tenure who were installing their plaques on the developmental schemes which had been initiated his (Shujaat’s) government.

He said the situation was fast changing and the people had started joining ‘king’s’ party.

Mr Shujaat said the PML-Q had no link with former president Pervez Musharraf but it was cautiously watching his interviews on news channels.

He said the political parties had begun making electoral alliances and that one should wear some ‘special’ glasses to analyse when the general elections would be held.

The PML-Q president parried a query about an electoral alliance between the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and the Pakistan People’s Party and said every party had the right to join hands with other(s) in accordance with its future plans.

On the occasion, PML-Q central general secretary Tariq Bashir Cheema criticised the PTI government in KP over poor performance and claimed that the Imran Khan-led party won’t be able to reclaim victory in the next elections in the province. He also flayed the PML-N-led federal government’s ‘bad governance’ and said the people would reject the party in the next elections.

MPA Javaid Naseem, who recently joined the PML-Q, claimed that the party’s candidates in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would win the next elections.

He criticised the PTI leadership and provincial government for failing to deliver the goods.

Meanwhile, the PML-Q named Malik Mehboobullah Jan and Wajiduzzaman as its provincial president and general secretary respectively. The names of the other office-bearers will be announced later.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2018