LAHORE, June 1: PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Husain on Sunday directed Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi that he should respond positively to any gesture by opposition parties to run the provincial legislature smoothly.

Talking to reporters at his residence, he said what had happened in the just-concluded Punjab Assembly session could be interpreted in both ways. Some people, he said, were of the view that everything was avoidable and the government should not have done what it did.

On the other hand, he said, if the government had failed to run the house in the absence of opposition, the very same elements would have argued that Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi could not deliver even with a two-thirds majority.

Shujaat said he would hope the provincial government to reciprocate any positive gesture coming from opposition benches.

LAWYERS: Differences among the ruling party lawyers came into the open on Sunday as they met Chaudhry Shujaat at his residence.

Senator Kamil Ali Agha, who conducted the proceedings, alleged that most of the law officials appointed by the Punjab government had nothing to do with the PML-Q. As a result, he said, the party loyalists felt aggrieved.

According to him, most of the legal advisers nominated for various organizations were also alien to the ruling party.

Former LHCBA president Zaman Qureshi said it was regrettable that the PPP-Patriots was getting its supporters appointed as legal advisers at the cost of the PML-Q people.

Chaudhry Shujaat gave them a patient hearing and held out an assurance that the matter would be given a serious thought.

He said it was a fact that some famous lawyers received heavy fees from the government to represent it in various cases, but they were still opposing the ruling party on various issues. He said he also knew of those who being based in the federal capital kept telling the government that lawyers in every nook and corner of the country were with them.

Shujaat said the government was now aware of the situation and would take necessary steps to improve the situation.

PML-Q leaders Mian Munir, Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor and Mian Meraj Din were also among the participants.

Shujaat said he wanted to change the culture of the party. He wanted journalists to sit in the party’s highest level meetings to cover the proceedings. Such an arrangement, he said, would prevent misreporting and speculations.

He reiterated that his party would shun politics of victimization.