LAHORE, Jan 12: As many as 3.5 million new members have joined the Punjab PML between January 2002 and December 2005, the party’s provincial secretary claims. Chaudhry Zaheeruddin said in a press statement on Friday that the party had the record of new enrolments.

Referring to reports that parties like Tehrik-i-Insaaf, PML-N and the MMA could form an alliance, he said they were nothing but a joke.

Zaheeruddin, who is also provincial minister for communication and works, said some of these parties were without any organisational setup, a following or even proper offices. According to him, the followers of the MMA were none but students of seminaries.

In a separate statement, PML MNA Begum Mehnaz Rafi said the Jamaat-i-Islami had no following at the grassroots level and the party was adept only in sabotaging the democratic process.

Referring to the past conduct of the JI amir, she said, Qazi Husain Ahmad had first launched a movement against Benazir Bhutto and then against Mian Nawaz Sharif. She said everybody knew the kind of allegations Qazi Husain and Nawaz Sharif had been trading in courts.

Had the two parties any following in Punjab, they would not have tried to provide crutches to each other, Mehnaz Rafi said.

The PML leader alleged that Qazi wanted to sabotage the election process by hurling threats that he would launch a movement. However, she said, the PML would expose the ‘popularity’ of the Jamaat through transparent elections.