LAHORE, Jan 6: Saleem Saifullah, a senior member of the PML-Q, on Tuesday added his weight to the PML unification efforts when he met Nawaz Sharif with “his own proposals” to get splinter groups together.
According to PML-N sources, Mr Saifullah brought “a list of demands,” which included the slots of provincial (Punjab) president, deputy opposition leader in the National Assembly and the secretary general of the unified party.
The PML-N, which later discussed the demands in a party meeting, refused to entertain them. “Accepting the demands will be like handing over the party to the Chaudhrys,” a PML-N leader said.
The PML-Q had already presented a list of demands, which included accommodating all members of the central working committee in the unified CWC, letting district governments work for the time being and involve a few UK-based common friends as guarantors.The Tuesday demands, sources said, came over and above the earlier list. The PML-N could not digest the previous list and no further effort was made on that. The fresh demands have only added to the `confusion’, the PML-N sources maintain.
The PML-N confusion also stems from the fact that party leadership is not clear whether Mr Saifullah is forwarding demands for a “respectable return” of the Chaudhrys on his own or is representing his party point of view.
Officially speaking, both sides denied presentation of proposals and discussion on them.
Mr Saifullah, talking to Dawn, said that he was pleading for the unification and the Tuesday meeting was first of its kind. “It is hard to present detailed proposals in first sitting,” he said.
“But I have requested Mian Nawaz Sharif to show some flexibility on the issue of unification and let the Chaudhrys return to their parent party with respect. Such efforts will continue, and hopefully bear some fruit,” he said.
He dispelled impression that he had been asked by his party leadership to undertake such an effort. “After all I am also a senior member of the party and can take certain initiatives on my own. The Tuesday meeting was one such initiative,” he said.
He further said “we” were trying to make both sides take some confidence building measures before a final effort could be made for unification. “As they say, politics is art of making possible what otherwise looks impossible,” he concluded
Ahsan Iqbal of the PML-N also claimed that the meeting was preliminary in nature and only a “general reference to unification” was made.
Quoting Nawaz Sharif, he said that the PML-N was currently busy in developing national consensus on important issues. “Thus, unification, for the time being at least, has been put on the hold,” Iqbal said.
He denied any headway in the Tuesday meeting, saying that the question of furtherance of the unification efforts did not arise because there was no detailed discussion on the agenda.