LAHORE, June 30: Functional Muslim League President Pir Pagara claimed on Sunday that the Musharraf government was on its way out because of which there was no possibility of the general elections being held in October.

He said the setup supplanting the present one would stay in power for about 12 to 18 months during which a number of changes would take place on the political landscape.

The Sindhi leader made these claims while talking to reporters and addressing a meeting of his party’s central council which had been called to discuss progress in several rounds of talks for the unification of various factions of the Pakistan Muslim League.

The FML leader stiffened his attitude towards the military regime, apparently to clear way for cooperation with the PML (Nawaz) after the collapse of merger talks with the PML (Quaid-i-Azam). Representatives of some other factions had also been invited.

PML(N) leaders Khwaja Saad Rafiq, Zaeem Qadri and Asad Muhammad, PML (Chattha) leaders Sardar Assef Ahmad Ali and Iqbal Dar, PML (Jinnah) leader Chaudhry Muhammad Farooq, PML (Qasim) chief Saifullah Saif and Council Muslim League leader Sardar Nasrullah were present as observers. Jinnah Muslim League leader Azad Bin Haider was not present because of the sickness of his spouse, but sent a message that he would abide by any decision taken by the participants.

Pir Pagara, who is due to meet President Gen Pervez Musharraf on July 2, first alone and then along with some other leaders of the PML groups, said he would not like to talk much with a ruler who was on his way out. He said he would simply place the resolution, adopted on Sunday, before Gen Musharraf and then listen to his point of view.

The resolution, the Pir prodded his aides to have the council adopt, “appealed” to the president that he should make the PML(QA) implement its June 14 decision regarding the merger of half a dozen factions of the PML.

Asked what outcome could be expected of the July 2 meeting with the general in view of his recalcitrance, the Pir said it depended on the president. He said he could only say that he would reach the rendezvous on the appointed time.

He told a questioner that he was not aware of the agenda for the meeting nor was he curious to find out.

“Who says the elections are going to be held. I am not one to share this view. Our party is not making any preparations for the elections. We don’t want to waste our time and money (on an exercise which is not going to take place).” He claimed that ‘arbitrators’— a euphemism for the army — had approached him recently to ask that he should accept the office of patron-in-chief of the unified party. But, he said, he had refused to accept the offer as there was no room in the PML constitution for such an office.

Then, he said, he was told not to speak against anyone chosen by the military leadership as head of the unified party.

The Pir ignored a suggestion that his reckless statements could destabilize the military regime which would not augur well for the country. “I am not bothered about reckoning the impact of my statement nor by any apprehension that it may destabilize the regime.”

He refused to accept that his statements had always added confusion to an already complicated situation.

Asked how he could seek from Gen Musharraf the implementation of a resolution to which the PML(QA) was a party, absent from the Sunday meeting, as a result of which the situation had undergone a qualitative change, the FML chief insisted that only the resolution in question could provide the basis for unification of PML groups. He made it clear that his party would not be willing to join hands with anyone picked up by the regime. In that situation, he said, his party would prefer to sit back and wait for better times.

The Pir, who until recently had been saying that his party would have no objection even if the general stayed in power for decades or amended the constitution, told a questioner that he did not want to comment on the National Reconstruction Bureau’s proposals for constitutional amendments.

Earlier, Pir Pagara’s confidant Sheikh Sirajuddin mounted a blistering attack on the leadership of the PML(QA) for their disrespectful statements against the FML chief. “We can offer any sacrifice for the merger of the PML factions, but we can’t tolerate baseless allegations against our leader.”

He said if, as alleged by PML(QA) leader, Pir Pagara lacked patriotism, then not a single citizen could claim the virtue.

KHWAJA SAAD: Punjab PML(N) secretary-general Khwaja Saad Rafiq, who led his delegation to the FML meeting, told reporters that his party was willing to make an electoral adjustments with the FML, but was not prepared for a merger.