ISLAMABAD, Oct 25: Pakistan Muslim League-Q old guard and lawmakers, who twice met in the federal capital last week seeking a change in the party leadership, will hold another session on Tuesday to discuss the issue.
Party sources told Dawn that the meeting was aimed at discussing the situation emerging from abandoning the party by several MNAs, senators and members of provincial assemblies. They claimed that some other leaders, who did not attend the previous meetings, would also participate in the Tuesday meeting to be held at the residence of party leader Chaudhry Hamid Nasir Chattha.
A source said that some PML-Q leaders, including senior vice-presidents and vice-presidents, had met a number of angry lawmakers who had formed a forward bloc in the National Assembly and the Senate. The MPs are reported to have said that they were not ready to return to the party fold in the presence of incumbent leadership.
He said Mr Chattha had held a meeting with 16 members of the Punjab Assembly in Lahore on Saturday and 13 of them demanded a change in the party leadership.
Salim Saifullah Khan, who is said to be aspirant to the post of secretary general which he had held before being replaced by Mushahid Hussain Syed, told Dawn on Saturday that he was not a candidate for any government office and his only objective was to keep the party intact and bring dissident legislators back to the party fold.
The sources said that PML-Q president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, who was abroad, might return before the Tuesday meeting. Secretary-General Mushahid Hussain, who along with a parliamentarian delegation left for the United States to meet Dr Aafia Siddiqui, is staying there to look after his wife who had reportedly undergone an operation for cancer.
Mr Saifullah said that his scheduled meeting with Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi could not take place as the latter had conveyed to him that he could not leave home because of ‘serious illness’ of the mother of Chaudhry Shujaat.
A senior party official, who is privy to the development but not part of the regrouping, told Dawn that many of those who attended the meetings had personal grudge against the Chaudhry brothers. “Some of them are angry for not getting party tickets for the Feb 18 elections and the others for losing party posts.”He said they should wait for the next party elections, adding that Chaudhry Shujaat had already indicated that he would not be a candidate for the next term.
A PML-Q leader, who is in the forefront of the move for a change in leadership, said the ongoing efforts were not against the Chaudhrys. “We are trying to keep the party intact and stop desertions.”
Mr Chattha has already said that if the efforts to keep the PML-Q united have failed the party would divide into four factions.