LAHORE, May 7: Leaders of the PML(QA), the PML (Functional) and the PML (Chattha) have agreed to hold a meeting in Islamabad on Friday (May 10) to explore the possibility of unification or alliance of the three factions.

The news was broken by PML(QA) President Mian Muhammad Azhar at a meeting of important party leaders from various provinces at his residence on Tuesday evening.

The PML(N), with which Functional Muslim League President Pir Pagara had held two rounds of talks after which he had refused to recognize the PML(QA) as a party, has now been excluded from the scheme.

Individuals of the PML(N) desirous of joining hands with the PML(QA) would, however, be welcome, Mian Azhar said in his brief address to the meeting.

On the other hand, a close associate of Pir Pagara, Sheikh Sirajuddin, told Dawn by telephone that the possibility of the PML(N) getting represented at the Friday meeting could not be ruled out. “We are for alliance, not unification, with other factions,” he said.

He said that his party was in contact with the PML(N). “We’ll be going to the meeting with an open mind, prepared to discuss all possibilities”, Mian Azhar said in his address and then talking to reporters.

A number of party leaders who spoke at the meeting said that the chairmanship of the party was “not” negotiable as Mian Azhar had been elected by the party for a three-year term in accordance with the procedure laid down in the party constitution.

Others were of the view that smaller factions should merge themselves with the PML(QA) as it were the rivers which fell into the sea and not the vice versa. They said in the case of adjustments, smaller factions should be given seats according to their representation in assemblies in the past.

However, Mian Azhar said he was in favour of unification but could not join hands with those who had fled abroad after looting the country, an obvious reference to the Sharifs.

He said the Friday meeting would not take any final decision as proposals exchanged there would be placed before the party’s central working committee, which has been convened for May 13.

Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said his party was meeting ‘unconditionally’ with other factions to establish that it was holding the national interests supreme.