LAHORE: At least 10 Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz MPAs had met the prime minister in Islamabad on Saturday, says one of the visitors amid claims by the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf that 15 more are set to call on Imran Khan soon.

Read: 15 PML-N MPAs meet Imran at Banigala: PTI

On the other hand, the PML-N has decided to form a ‘disciplinary’ committee to engage those who had met the premier without taking their leadership into confidence as well as other MPAs facing ‘problems’ in their respective constituencies.

Mian Jaleel Ahmed Sharaqpuri, one of the 15 PML-N MPAs who had reportedly called on the prime minister, said nine of his party colleagues and one MPA belonging to the Pakistan Peoples Party were already present when he reached Mr Khan’s Banigala residence.

Talking to a group of reporters and a private TV channel, Mian Sharaqpuri said most of these MPAs were from south Punjab, adding he would not disclose the name of the PPP MPA. In reply to a question, he said he had requested for the meeting earlier in June to discuss some issues of his constituents and was finally invited on June 29.

PTI claims 15 more N-Leaguers are set to call on prime minister

So far Mian Sharaqpuri, Ataur Rehman, Rana Mehmoodul Haq, Qasim Hanjra, Shoaib Awaisi, Faisal Niazi, Chaudhry Arshad, Nishat Daha, Ashraf Ansari, Maulana Ghayasuddin, Ghazanfar Langah and Azhar Chandia have been named as among the delegation of MPAs who visited the prime minister. Three of them — Mian Sharaqpuri, Maulana Ghayas­uddin and Nishat Daha — have told the leadership about their meeting and the purpose behind it.

A PML-N official said Maulana Ghayasuddin had a property dispute in his constituency and needed help of the district administration to resolve it. Requesting not to be named, the official said the Maulana told the leadership that he had met Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar a couple of times during the budget session to seek his help in the dispute and each time the latter urged him to call on the prime minister for only he (Mr Khan) could issue a directive in such matters.

He said seeing the ‘tactics’ being employed by the ruling PTI, they had decided to form a disciplinary committee to engage the lawmakers who had called on the prime minister, look into their constituency-level problems and regulate their meetings, if needed, with the government authorities.

About the Gujranwala incident in which PML-N activists had tried to lay a siege to MPA Ashraf Ansari’s residence, the official said it was a local rivalry between two party groups having nothing to do with the party’s warning of encircling homes of those MPAs who would betray the party.

Meanwhile, the PTI is making hectic efforts to make further inroads into the PML-N. A close aide to a provincial minister claimed that a group of 15 more N-Leaguers would visit Banigala later this month, while contacts were being made to cause some more defections to carve out a forward bloc of at least 40 plus MPAs in the major opposition party.

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2019