MANSEHRA, Dec 2: Deputy Prime Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi said on Sunday that no political party would be able to emerge as a majority party in coming general election and if Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid became part of the next coalition government it would give provincial status to Hazara.

He made this promise while speaking at a public gathering here.

“You (workers) should focus your energies on electioneering as next general elections are only three months away. Some leaders have been making tall claims of achieving thumbing majority in coming general election, but it is eyewash as no single party can get mandate enough to form next government alone in the country,” Mr Elahi said.

He said that people of Hazara had extended support to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and its chief Nawaz Sharif in past, but he (Nawaz) didn’t respect their views and signed the Seventeenth Amendment, which provided legal cover to change of name of the province to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In fact, Mr Sharif did all this to clear his way for becoming prime minister for the third time, he claimed.

“I am not Sharif, I am a Chaudhry who respects people’s mandate and if people voted us to power or even we become part of coming next coalition government, we would give Hazara the status of a province as we know that your predecessors have rendered great sacrifices for Pakistan,” said Mr Elahi.

The deputy prime said that the PML-Q was in contact with religious parties for electoral alliance and if it happened it would be a great achievement for his party.

“We have formed an electoral alliance with Sunni Ittehad Council and are in contact with other political parties and if we succeeded, it would be a breakthrough for us,” he said.

On this occasion, Mr Elahi announced regularisation of services of 4,000 contract employees of Utility Stores Corporation. He claimed that as chief minister he had provided free education and health services to people of Punjab and if his party came to power at centre in next elections he would do the same in entire country.

He said that passport office would soon be made functional in Mansehra and natural gas provided to areas still deprived of it. Mr Elahi praised the efforts of PML-Q KP president Syed Qasim Shah, saying that because of his hard work dissidents were coming back to the party and would play an important role in coming elections.

Earlier, in his welcome address Mr Shah said that this big gathering was witness to his claim that PML-Q was the mother of all parties and would soon show its strength in coming election.

Federal minister Sheikh Waqas, minister for state Shahjahan Yousuf and party office-bearers, including Sardar Yousuf, Tariq Swati, Shahzada Gustasib and Amanullah Jadoon, also spoke on the occasion. They claimed that the PML-Q would sweep the coming elections in Hazara and the PML-N would suffer a crushing defeat.