PESHAWAR, May 25: The chances for of Muslim League-Quaid reorganising itself in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after the May 11 general elections are very slim as several of its leaders either participated in the electoral exercise independently or as nominees of other political parties.
According to majority of PML-Q people, they lost the elections due to alliance with Pakistan People’s Party, whose wrong policies had created strong public resentment.
And that is why PML-Q on Saturday announced to end its alliance with PPP and extend support to Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf in the National Assembly, the Senate and the Punjab Assembly on opposition benches.
Until April 2012, PML-Q was in the position to compete on different seats when former federal minister Amir Muqam was its provincial president. However, it shattered after Mr Muqam he along with thousands of workers joined PML-N.
The people, who avoided joining PML-N, tried to come forward but Chaudhrys of Gujrat (Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Chaudhry Pervaiz Ellahi) nominated Syed Qasim Shah of Hazara division as its provincial president and Intikhab Chamkani advocate as its provincial general secretary.
However, Mr Shah also failed to tighten grip around the party and therefore, prominent people continued slipping towards other parties. Perhaps, Qalandar Lodhi and Ghulam Mohammad were the last MPAs, who stuck to the party.
In the recent elections, both Mr Lodhi and Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani won as independent candidates and joined Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf. Ghulam Mohammad of Chitral won the provincial assembly seat on All Pakistan Muslim League (APML), but he also assured PTI of his support.
At present, there is no provincial president of the party and its general secretary, Intikhab Chamkani, is heading it but even then, the central leadership is least interested to name anyone as its president.
Former provincial president Syed Qasim Shah and son Mazhar Qasim Shah have joined Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl and also contested elections on its tickets but could not succeed.
“Chaudhry brothers had allowed the party people that they themselves should take the decisions to contest the elections independently or get tickets from other parties,” Mazhar Chances of PML-Q reorganisation in KP slim Qasim told Dawn over the telephone on Saturday and said the best option for them was JUI-F.
He said the party people did not show sincerity and despite his father’s hectic efforts, PML-Q could not be organised in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“We have no complaint against Chaudhry brothers but the party’s position is already very week in the province for many reasons,” he said.
Mr Mazhar said the PML-Q image in the public had declined mainly due to its support to former president Pervez Musharraf despite his wrong policies, especially the operation against Lal Masjid and suspension of the chief justice of Pakistan.
“We could easily win the elections from JUI-F platform but the time we joined it was very short to elections and could not run the election campaign properly,” he said and added that JUI-F itself had offered them tickets.
When contacted, Intikhab Chamkani of PML-Q said his party had decided to break its alliance with PPP.
He said the people loved PML-Q but they did not want it to extend support to President Zardari.
“We had fielded 10 people on national assembly seats and 34 on provincial assembly but all of them lost the elections. At present, there is no provincial president and I am heading the party in the province. Let me tell one thing that the party’s reorganisation will start soon,” he said.
The PML-Q leader said PTI leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi had contacted his party leadership and therefore, PML-Q would support PTI on the opposition benches.
He said PML-Q had five senators, who would support PTI stand on different issues.
Mr Chamkani said his party had made a strategy to raise voice on basis of different issues in the national interest. He said there were many, who got incentives from his party but deserted it to join other parties for personal interests.
The PML-Q leader said the party had appointed Syed Qasim Shah as adviser to the prime minister, while former MPAs like Ghulam Mohammad and Qalandar Lodhi had also got benefits, huge funds through the party platform, even then they said goodbye to the party.