LAHORE, Oct 15: Buoyant at the outcome of Sahiwal by-election, the PML-N has stepped up efforts to also woo the support of disgruntled elements within the PPP and those who differ with President Zardari for making an alliance with the PML-Q but do not speak their mind publicly.

Sources said PPP’s stalwart and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had conveyed to the Sharifs that he would soon announce joining the N League as there was no veracity in the reports of his joining Imran Khan’s PTI. Reportedly, Mr Shah said he could not work under a “junior” leader like Khan.

Similarly, the Kairas, Gondals, Gulls and some other PPP stalwarts of Gujrat are PML-N’s target in the wake of their annoyance with the party leadership over its alliance with the PML-Q.

On the other hand, the PML-Q and the PPP claim the PML-N will be losing its potential candidates, especially in Punjab, because of the Sharifs’ ‘stubborn’ attitude towards their party men.

Saying that the party was facing an “undue” criticism for welcoming Kashmala Tariq and Sumaira Malik, PML-N Senator Pervaiz Rashid told Dawn on Saturday the two ladies were part of the Like-Minded (a splinter group of the PML-Q) and its members wanted to join the PML-N.

“We have welcomed them but have not yet given an assurance for awarding them party tickets for the next general election,” he said.

He said both the PML-Q and PPP personalities were contacting his party seeing their “dismal future” in the wake of their alliance. “The bypoll result of PP-220, in which PML-N candidate defeated a joint candidate of the PML-Q and the PPP, is predicting what is going to happen in 2013 elections,” he said, adding there had been serious reservations of PPP leaders who did not want to contest from the PPP-PMLQ platform. “Such leaders are considering quitting their party,” he said.

Pervaiz Rashid said PML-N’s doors were open to all those who had no role in breaking the party in the past. “A good number of PML-Q legislators are eager to come back to the PML-N fold, but the party will take the decision at an appropriate time,” he said.

A source in the PML-N said its chief Nawaz Sharif had shown ‘flexibility’ in taking back deserters like Sheikh Rashid, president of the Awami Muslim League.

“The ice melted at the All Parties Conference early this month when Mr Rashid asked Mr Sharif to cool down and pardon his former colleagues as they have realised their mistakes,” the source said, adding after that Mr Sharif asked his leaders not to issue statements against ‘outspoken’ Mr Rashid.

Sheikh Rashid, however, told Dawn he had not sought an apology from Mr Sharif. “It was simply a handshake with him,” he made it clear.

While Like-Minided head Salim Saifullah, Sheikh Rashid and Ijazul Haq, president of his own PML faction, called for unification of all factions of the Muslim League, PML-Q senior leader Kamil Ali Agha ruled out the merger of the leagues at the moment.

“The Sharifs say in the morning that they are ready to make an alliance with the Q if it quits the government but in the evening they say otherwise,” he said. The N League, in fact, was facing a ‘political isolation’ because of its “inconsistent” policies, he said.

Agha said the Sharifs had, in fact, joined hands with Gen Musharraf after accepting his close associates like Ms Kashmala and Ms Sumaira. “They should better stop giving sermons that they are doing a politics of principles,” Agha advised the Sharifs.

Punjab PPP Secretary-General Samiullah Khan also joined Agha in dispelling the impression that the PML-N had done something ‘extraordinary’ on the political front by winning the Sahiwal seat.

“Nawaz should stop dreaming on the result of just one seat,” Samiullah said. He claimed more votes had been cost in the bypoll as compared to the 2008 general election showing the ‘art work’ of the PML-N in securing the maximum number of votes for its candidate. Besides, he said, this constituency was among one of those where candidate mattered more than the party.

Mr Khan said the impression that some angry PPP leaders were pondering joining the PML-N was not correct as even those PPP men who had some reservations with the leadership preferred staying in their mother party.