ISLAMABAD, Nov 2: The senior leadership of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League is unhappy over the arrest of ARD/PML-N president Javed Hashmi, a step insiders said was taken without consulting the League’s top brass.

Even Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, PML president Chaudhry Shujaat, and secretary-general Salim Saifullah Khan were not informed before the action was taken, the sources claimed.

A top party leader said some ministers, having their own personal agenda, had supported the action which, he said, could cause immense political damage to the government and the party.

It is interesting to note that Javed Hashmi in his news conference some hours before his arrest had identified information minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed for having been chosen to announce the charge-sheet and his arrest at a news conference which, however, did not take place, perhaps because that would have proved Mr Hashmi right.

Only two top PML-Q leaders have so far publicly supported the arrest — Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervez Illahi and federal commerce minister Humayun Akhtar.

Others who supported the action are all from other parties of the ruling alliance. They are interior minister Faisal Saleh Hayat and defence minister Rao Sikandar Iqbal from the Patriots, and water and power minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao of PPP-S.

Vice-president and the party’s media committee chairman Kabir Ali Wasti is of the view that the arrest of Mr Hashmi had shocked most of the league leadership who gave no importance either to the letter on the basis of which the action was taken nor the detainee as a politician.

Talking to Dawn he said: “It appears some forces, including the ministers, wanted to accord Mr Hashmi undue importance, and even to make him a bigger leader than the Sharifs.”

He said it was strange that a letter which was not given any importance by the national newspapers even after its release by Mr Hashmi has now reached the international media as well.

The party’s secretary-general Salim Saifullah Khan also complained that he was kept unaware about the action till the last. No other senior party leader was taken into confidence about the action either.

Had the government asked us for advice we would have suggested some political way to tackle the issue, he said.

He said political issues ought to be resolved politically.

When asked if Chaudhry Shujaat was consulted on the issue, he said: “I don’t think he was taken into confidence in this matter.”