LAHORE, May 18: The National Council of the Millat Party formally okayed merger of the party with the PML-Q at a meeting here on Tuesday.
Farooq Leghari, who presided over the meeting, told the participants that the MP was not being merged with any faction of the League rather it was being disbanded to form a new party. He said Gen Pervez Musharraf had assured him that the new party would follow the Millat Party manifesto.
He said the decision to join the PML had not been taken for his personal interests as he was not desirous of any office in the new party. However, he said the people following him to the new organization would be rewarded according to their proportional weightage.
He said he would soon go round the country and hold public rallies under the new flag of the PML which, he said, would ensure just accountability, transparency in governance, press freedom, provincial autonomy and integrity of the country.
Earlier, senior vice-president Malik Abdul Qayyum dilated upon the lucrative offers that had been rejected by Mr Leghari since 1985 to hold supreme the flag of principles. Information secretary Shahid Husain Malik presented a resolution to acknowledge the services of the Baloch chieftain for the party and its workers.
'TACTICAL MOVE:' The powers that matter used a carrot and stick method to make Millat Party chief Sardar Farooq Leghari merge his party with the (unified) Pakistan Muslim League, MP officials claimed here on Tuesday.
Mr Leghari had been told that clinching any important role for him in the incumbent democratic setup would be impossible with a strength of just 16 MNAs on his side as it would irritate major partner, the PML-Q, in the ruling coalition, they said.
This problem could be solved by joining the PML-Q, he was suggested, with the indication that 35 non-Jat MNAs from the Punjab would throw their weight in his favour in the League.
The party's national executive committee, however, rejected the plan put up by Senator Muhammad Ali Durrani six months ago, though it was told that in the present situation it could not get any better share.
Mr Leghari was also reluctant to join the PML-Q, which he had condemned as "an assembly of the corrupt" before the October 2002 elections. The scheme was then re-drafted and the idea of creating a new League with no suffixes attached to it was forwarded to allay his concerns. To ensure that the plan was not rejected again, pressure tactics (causing defections in the party) were also used.
At least five MNAs were likely to part ways with the party when Leghari would finally decide to 'surrender.' The MP is going to be formally merged with the PML after a meeting between Farooq Leghari and Prime Minister Jamali and PML President Chaudhry Shujaat Husain in Islamabad today (Wednesday).
Mr Leghari, along with the other party leaders, left for Islamabad on Tuesday evening after the MP's National Council formally approved the merger plan. Immediately after reaching Islamabad, he would hold an all-important meeting with powers that be to finalize agenda for the next-day meeting.
The officials allege that the Punjab government is still continuing its work on the National Alliance MPAs to weaken Mr Leghari's support as well as strengthening its hold on the province in case he replaces Jamali. The replacement is inevitable and it is weeks away, they claim, adding the first option in this regard will be an in-house change.