LAHORE, Jan 24: Pakistan Muslim League (Qasim) President Syed Kabir Ali Wasti proposed on Thursday that President Gen Pervez Musharraf should head the unified Pakistan Muslim League as he alone was capable of running the party and the country.

Talking to Dawn, he claimed that the general was the future president of the PML. Nobody, he said, should have any doubt in this regard.

The PML (Qasim) is one of the four parties whose unification is being discussed these days.

The PML(QA), led by Mian Muhammad Azhar, the PML (Functional), headed by Pir Pagara and the PML(C) of Hamid Nasir Chattha are the other factions engaged in unification talks.

For the time being, the parties lack meeting ground and each is offering its own formula.

PML(QA) leaders Mian Muhammad Azhar, Gohar Ayub Khan and Chaudhry Shujaat Husain have already held comprehensive talks with Pir Pagara, although no progress has been reported.

These leaders gave the impression that Mian Azhar would be the president of the unified PML and that the Pir had agreed to accept him as leader of the four groups. As a token of respect, they claimed, the Pir would be made the patron-in-chief.

The PML(QA) faced tremendous embarrassment when the Sindhi leader, who was once president of the defunct Pakistan National Alliance which had paved the way for the ouster of the PPP government in 1977, promptly refuted the impression.

The Pir argued that in the PML constitution there was no room for a patron-in-chief. He also held that the head of the unified PML should be elected according to the procedure laid down in it.

He proposed that the council, as it existed in 1978, should choose the new party chief, a proposal unacceptable to the PML(QA).

The PML (Qasim) chief believes that initially a committee comprising heads of the four groups of the PML should be constituted to take policy decisions. He also said there was no harm in accepting Mian Azhar as the leader for a brief period.

But then, he said, the unified PML should be led by Gen Pervez Musharraf.

Answering a question, Mr Wasti said, Gen Musharraf had saved the country from a very serious situation created by the Sept 11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and he should now run the PML.

He said the day was not far when the general would take off his uniform and assume the leadership of the party which had created Pakistan. A three-member delegation of the PML(QA), led by party president Mian Muhammad Azhar, is meeting PML(C) president Hamid Nasir Chattha on Friday with little hope on both sides of evolving a consensus formula.

It is said that Mr Chattha favours Pir Pagara as head of the united PML. However, he would discuss his formula with the visiting leaders.

A PML(QA) leader said on condition of anonymity that the strength of every PML should be determined by its capacity to win assembly seats. Party offices, he said, should also be given on the basis of this strength.

The PML(QA) insists that Mian Azhar should be retained as head of the unified PML and other offices should be distributed fairly.

“There is no question of electing the office-bearers.”

The leader admitted that the chances of the four groups getting united, were slim. The PML(QA), however, was making contacts with other factions to establish that it was serious about unity.

Pir Pagara is scheduled to arrive here on Jan 28 to participate in a meeting the following day to explore the possibility of unification.

PML (Functional) secretary-general Rana Muhammad Ashraf on Thursday contacted Saifullah Saif, a leader of another PML(Q) faction, and invited him to the meeting. The group is a component of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy.