ISLAMABAD, Oct 24: Differences among leaders in the Pakistan Muslim League-Q are reported to have deepened as majority of office-bearers, supported by the party’s legislators, have been stepping up efforts to replace the top leadership of the party.

The move has been accelerated at a time when both PML-Q president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and secretary general Mushahid Hussain Syed are out of the country.

PML-Q’s old guard and some lawmakers held their second meeting on Friday evening at the residence of a former secretary general, Salim Saifullah Khan, asking Mr Saifullah to meet PML-Q Punjab president Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi to take him into confidence about the disenchantment.

An insider told Dawn that there was a divergence of views about the change in party leadership. One group was of the view that they should wait till May when the incumbent office-bearers would complete their second term and would not be able to seek a third term, while the other group sought an urgent meeting of the general council to replace the present team with a new one.

The first meeting was held at the residence of PML-Q leader Hamid Nasir Chattha on Wednesday evening. It was dominated by discussions on failures of the leadership and calls for a change of command to satisfy angry party lawmakers who had formed a forward bloc in the National Assembly and the Senate.

PML-Q sources said both Chaudhry Nasir Chattha and Salim Saifullah were aspirants to the two top party positions.

They said Mr Saifullah had contacted Mr Elahi in Lahore and the two were expected to meet in Islamabad on Saturday.

The meeting were attended by party’s senior vice-presidents, vice-presidents, additional secretary generals and some MNAs and senators, including Mr Chattha, Gohar Ayub Khan, Lt-Gen Majeed Malik, Akram Zaki, Humayun Akhtar Khan, Mohammad Ali Durrani, Sumaira Malik, Jan Mohammad Jamali, Arbab Hashim, Jam Mohammad Yousuf, Naseer Mengal, Nisar Mohammad Khan, Ghaffar Qureshi, Saeed Hashmi, Salim Saifullah, Nisar Memon, Asia Azeem, Azim Chaudhry, Intikhab Alam and Riaz Fatyana.

PML-Q secretary information Tariq Azeem, who did not attend the meetings, told Dawn that these had no “political significance” because these were not attended by top party leaders, including Chaudhry Shujaat, Pervaiz Elahi and Mushahid Hussain.

He said Chaudhry Shujaat was in Germany and Mr Elahi had not been “directly contacted” for what he described as informal gatherings.

The sources said that such meetings had also been held in the recent past to discuss the change in top party leadership.