ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) senior leader Chaudhary Pervaiz Elahi has said that references would be filed for disqualification of National Assembly members who did not cast their votes for Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf's election.

Elahi said this while talking to media representatives after a luncheon hosted by PML-Q president Chaudahry Shujaat Hussain in honour of the newly elected premier here on Saturday. Leaders of the PPP and PML-Q also attended the luncheon.

He said that disciplinary action would be taken against those who did not participate in the election process and reference would be filed against them.

Leaders from the ‘Likeminded group’, a breakaway faction of the PML-Q, formally joined the PML-N earlier this May after both parties signed an agreement for a political alliance.

Pervez Elahi said Saturday that the PML-Q had decided to file references against four of its lawmakers for their non participation in the election and participation in the PML-Nawaz’s parliamentary meeting. The ‘likeminded’ parliamentarians had won their elections on the PML-Q’s ticket, and their abstention from the party’s vote allows the PML-Q to file references against them.

To another query regarding the non-participation of his party members in the election process, he vowed that strict action would be taken against those found guilty. However, he added that three MNAs were not able to attend the session due to their private engagements.

Prior to the crossover of the party’s ‘political dissidents’, the PML-Q had 50 MNAs, making it the third largest parliamentary party in the house, and 80 MPAs in Punjab until the 45 “likeminded” formally crossed over to the PML-N.