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Published 04 Mar, 2008 12:00am

PML hopes for grand opposition alliance: Crucial meeting today

ISLAMABAD, March 3: Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain, brother of PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, and newly elected MNA from Gujrat, has said that a meeting has been convened on Tuesday for consultations about forming a grand opposition alliance comprising the PML-Q and its allies.

He said at a news conference here on Monday that Chaudhry Shujaat would also make an announcement on Tuesday about formation of the provincial government led by the PML-Q in Balochistan and its candidate for the chief minister’s post.

Mr Hussain said the new opposition would neither create chaos in parliament nor try to pull the government down.

In response to a question he said that Article 58(2)b should remain a part of the Constitution as it would work as a safety valve and the president needed to keep the power of dissolving the assembly if a government was involved in foul practices.

Referring to a statement by PPP’s MNA-elect Ahmed Mukhtar who had defeated his elder brother, Chaudhry Shujaat, the PML-Q leader said: “He does not deserve to be a candidate for prime minister’s post after admitting to have slapped a presiding officer and confessing to have been involved in an incident of firing on his rivals.”

He said Mr Mukhtar had lost election for a provincial assembly seat to a PML-N candidate. He said Chaudhry Shujaat was not the first party chief who had lost an election as former prime minister Mohammad Khan Junejo, Pir Pagara and others had also failed to make it to parliament in the past but they did not resign from their parties’ leadership.

He claimed that the PPP had benefited from a division in the PML vote-bank.

He said the PML-Q had ideological differences with the PPP and it would never join a coalition led by that party. However, it would support any party which formed the government, he said.

He said the PPP was forming its government in Islamabad but its ally PML-N was not joining it.

He supported the demand of holding former prime minister Shaukat Aziz and the caretaker government accountable for any irregularities committed by them.

He said he would welcome his own accountability by PML-N leader Shahbaz Sharif on coming into power in Punjab.

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