LAHORE, Nov 5: Ruling out the PML-Q ‘merger with any party’, Chaudhry Shujaat Husain on Wednesday called for grand national reconciliation for solving the problems afflicting the country.

He was talking to reporters after handing over 20 truckloads of relief goods to the party’s secretary-general from Balochistan at the Muslim League House.

He said the president’s visit to China had not yielded any positive result, but still one should expect better outcome of the Saudi Arabia visit. But in order to deal with internal issues, he said, the parties must come together.

He hoped that the relief goods would reach the deserving and help them in the hour of trial.

PML-Q Balochistan Secretary-General Arbab Muhammad Hashim said the earthquake had caused devastation over certain area where succour had started trickling in, but its scale was not as much as to bring in substantial relief.

About the outcome of the US election, Shujaat said it was too early to predict any kind of policy change, but “one hopes that Barrack Obama would take Kashmir issue more seriously as he had claimed in his recent speeches”.

As for the move to fire Sumera Malik from top slot of the party’s women wing and sharp reaction it drew from Hamid Nasir Chattha, Shujaat said: “She was not thrown out of the party, but only removed from the office which she had made inactive during the last few months”. Every violator of the party discipline, he said, would be dealt with accordingly.

“The so-called forward bloc has only six people; they do not have even seventh member,” he said, and emphasised that the party was being run according to Constitution and didn’t need any change at the top.

Talking about the meeting of party rebels and President Zardari, he said it did take place, but the party matters or forward bloc was not discussed in the meeting. “Parliamentarians keep meeting presidents and prime ministers. There is no need to attach any significance to the occasion”.