LAHORE, Aug 15: The position of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) in Punjab further weakened on Monday when one of its MNAs joined the ruling party, accepting the ‘bait’ for the office of the district nazim of Sheikhupura.

Mian Jalil Ahmed Sharqpuri, who had defeated then PML-Q president Mian Muhammad Azhar in the 2002 general elections, announced his decision at a meeting with Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi. Some other ruling party leaders were present on the occasion.

Already, about half a dozen PML-N MPAs have joined the ruling party. Some former legislators, who have strong positions in their constituencies in southern Punjab, recently changed loyalties.

The chief minister is focusing on southern Punjab and trying to win support of opposition lawmakers.

The PML-N and the PPP, which has also lost some of its legislators to the ruling party, sent disqualification references against the defectors, but the Punjab Assembly speaker is not forwarding them to the election commission on the grounds that the movers had no locus standi.

Law Minister Mohammad Basharat Raja said opposition legislators were joining the ruling party because they felt leaderless and insecure.

Talking to Dawn, he said party legislators and workers wanted to remain in constant contact with their leaders and since the PPP and the PML-N leaders were living in London and Jeddah, their legislators and workers were looking to other parties.

Answering a question about legal justification for the ruling PML to accept legislators from other parties, the minister said the government was in a position to defend its policy if the matter was raised at any legal forum.

Commenting on defections, PML-N parliamentary party leader in the Punjab Assembly Rana Sanaullah Khan said the party would have to deal with the matter politically rather than legally.

A legal course in the prevailing situation, he apprehended, could backfire.

He said if a legislator changed loyalty on account of policy differences, the party should give the situation a serious thought. But if somebody, he added, joined hands with the ruling party to get development funds or a position in the cabinet, the PML-N being an opposition party could not ‘outbid’ the ruling party.