ISLAMABAD Dec 18: The no-confidence motion filed by an influential group of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q to oust Mian Mohammad Azhar from the office of party presidency was withdrawn and the general council meeting scheduled for Dec 20 for voting on the issue was postponed on Wednesday.

The decision to this effect was taken at a meeting between Azhar and Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali. The meeting was also attended by other top party leaders at the prime minister’s house.

Earlier on Tuesday, Azhar and PML-Q parliamentary leader in the National Assembly Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain had held a marathon meeting with the staff officer of the president’s house, and reached at the conclusion to end the stand-off between them but had delayed the announcement till Wednesday.

According to a press release issued by the prime minister’s secretariat, other PML-Q leaders present at the meeting between Jamali and Azhar included party senior vice-president Abdul Majeed Malik, Shujaat, Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi and federal minister Abdul Sattar Lalika.

During the meeting, the office of the secretary-general was also discussed.

It was decided to postpone the Dec 20 general council meeting and to withdraw the no-confidence motion against Azhar in the “larger interest of the country” and to save the PML-Q from split.

Party’s parliamentary group would, however, meet at the prime minister’s house on Thursday according to schedule in which legislators from other allied parties would also participate.

Both the rival groups, led by Azhar and Shujaat, refused to give their impressions about the compromise which resulted in the withdrawal of no-confidence motion reportedly signed by more than half of general council membership.

However, sources privy to the talks claimed that a decision had been reached that Azhar would quit the party presidency and that he had handed over his resignation to a third party on the basis of which the talks were concluded and a “ceasefire” between the rival groups clamped.

Shujaat, when asked to comment on the agreement, said: “Let the things settle down and do not press for any revelation which could disrupt the whole atmosphere.”

President Gen Pervez Musharraf had played a pivotal role by directly intervening and, through his staff officer, he received Azhar on Friday last.

Azhar, after the meeting, had left Islamabad for Lahore without uttering anything about what transpired at the meeting except that he had conveyed his grievances to the president vis-a-vis unconstitutional handling of the party affairs.

He told Dawn on Wednesday that, in fact, the president had asked him for a complete ceasefire till he was able to bring about a compromise between him and the party.

Although there was no word about the status of Salim Saifullah Khan’s unopposed election as permanent secretary-general of the party, a source close to Azhar claimed that he was no more party secretary-general after the process having been challenged as unconstitutional.