LAHORE, June 18: The PML-QA and the Pakistan Awami Tehrik say they might cooperate with each other in the present political scenario of the country though they cannot set any modalities of this cooperation.
This consensus was developed between both the parties when PML-QA leaders Chaudhry Shujaat Husain and Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi visited PAT chief Dr Tahirul Qadri at his party’s office here on Tuesday.
Both the parties had earlier cooperated with each other in the last local council elections. However, the PAT later joined the six-party National Alliance.
Dr Qadri will leave for Islamabad on Wednesday (tomorrow) to discuss the future of the NA reportedly with a high official of a secret agency as party’s general council wants a bigger share in the allocation of seats for the alliance’s constituents.
Mr Husain told newsmen after the meeting that little time was left in the holding of the general elections so they wanted to speed up the process of discussing cooperation with the other parties. Today’s meeting was a step forward in this regard though modalities of the process could not yet been decided, he added.
About the unification of various Muslim League factions, he said that was a separate process which could not hinder the talks on electoral cooperation with the other parties.
“We want unification but there is a long list of demands put up by various factions of Leagues that require a long time to be processed. So we have decided also to settle electoral matters with the other parties simultaneously.”
He said the PML-QA was ready even to discuss cooperation at district, division and provincial levels with the other parties.
He asked the government to announce various election rules like qualification standards at the earliest so that aspirants could decide their future well in time.
He denied that various political figures were joining his party under pressure from the National Accountability Bureau. He said during the last local council polls no government pressure had been reported from any quarter but the party had excelled in the polls.