GUJRAT, April 24: The ruling PPP and the PML-Q may embrace each other in the proverbial marriage of convenience but some inveterate foes in both camps find the idea of sinking differences hard.

Sources in the Nawabzada family told Dawn that the message had been conveyed to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani as well as President Asif Ali Zardari during Gull's meeting with the premier this past week.

Mr Gull argued, they said, that the Nawabzada family had been opposing the Chaudhries of Gujrat for the last five decades and any compromise for the general election or at the local level and a friendship handshake with the PML-Q even in return of any ministerial portfolio would negate the principled stand of the Nawabzadas.

And that there was immense pressure of the political aides of the family to quit the PPP due to alliance between the PPP and the PML-Q, they added.

Nawabzada Gull's constituency NA-104 where Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain had been elected an MNA (by defeating Gull) in February 2008 election has been in the grip of speculations that the Nawabzada family will have to surrender the seat in favour of Wajahat amid fresh developments.

Mr Gull asserted that although the party leadership knew full well about his point of view, he further made it clear that he was not ready to surrender against the political big gun in Gujrat. At the same time, he said, he would not quit the PPP.

If the worse comes to the worst, that is, denial of ticket by the PPP in the next electoral exercise, Mr Gull was determined to go as an independent candidate, revealed the sources.

Meanwhile, political analysts believe that any attempt to sideline the Nawabzada family in the district can prove a big mistake as it leads the Gujjar clan which constitutes more than 50 per cent of Gujrat's population.

It is this factor, they say, that the Nawabzadas have opposed the otherwise powerful Chaudhries in their home district.

Even the Kaira family of Lalamusa, another major factor in the PPP politics in the district, has avoided direct confrontation with the Chaudhries.

Besides, analysts say, Federal Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar has restricted his rivalry with the PML-Q leaders to his constituency – NA-105 -- and he has been least bothered as far as the local elections are concerned.

Several PPP workers and associates of Ahmed Mukhtar, while speaking to this correspondent, expressed concern over the developments (PPP-PML-Q talks) which they see as inauspicious for the minister.

Ahmed Mukhtar has always got an overwhelming support of the man in the street in the urban areas of his constituency such as Gujrat city and Kunjah, Shadiwal and Mungowal towns. According to the results of the previous general elections since 1988, the Chaudhries could not manage enough support and, observers say, this anti-Chaudhries vote automatically go to the PPP through Ahmed Mukhtar. The voters may revolt against such an “unnatural alliance”, they add.

Sources said President Asif Ali Zardari had chosen PPP stalwarts Nazar Muhammad Gondal and Qamar Zaman Kaira to persuade Ghazanfar Gull to reconcile, though the chances were slim.