ISLAMABAD, Nov 7: Chaudhry Shujaat, parliamentary leader of the PML-Q, has resumed the political dialogue after a few days as he met Makhdoom Amin Fahim, president of the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP), late on Wednesday night.
He may also initiate talks with the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) leaders on Friday morning (today).
Maulana Fazlur Rahman, MMA’s candidate for prime ministership, and Qazi Hussain Ahmed, vice-president of the religious coalition, will represent the Mujlis-i-Amal at the meeting with Shujaat.
Speaking to newsmen at an Iftar party hosted by Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, PML-Q’s candidate for premiership, Shujaat said he had held a meeting with Makhdoom Amin last night, but did not disclose the venue of the meeting.
When asked about the outcome of his talks with the PPP chief, Chaudhry quipped:”We talked to each others as Mr Amin can talk, but can’t take a decision because he was not empowered to do so”.
In the meanwhile, Zafarullah Jamali and Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, president of the Alliance for Restoration for Democracy (ARD), also met last night Fazl, who also holds the office of MMA’s secretary-general.
Mr Shujaat denied to have demanded postponement of the assembly session by himself and said: “First of all Amin Fahim had expressed the desire to do so, which was followed by his nod and then many other leaders.”
He said: “We hope and demand that the assembly session should not remain suspended for too many days, and it should be summoned at the earliest.” He affirmed when questioned that whether any agreement on coalition was possible before the Eidul Fitr.
In reply to a question about the proposed All Parties Conference’s being convened by Nasrullah Khan, Shujaat said: “We must concentrate our energies on the forthcoming session of parliament.”
Earlier, Chaudhry Shujaat in the capacity of a coordinator between the government and four major parties had held a meeting with the two top MMA leaders without a breakthrough.
In reply to a question about the efforts for a national consensus government and a compromise on the name of the next prime minister, the PML-Q leader stressed: “We as a majority party will insist on our candidate”.
When asked about the reports of a deal to have reached between the PPP and the government on the formation of government led by Amin Fahim, Shujaat said: “I am not in the knowledge of any such thing, but one thing is clear that the PML-Q will not compromise on its can-didate for the prime ministership.”
He said that though parleys on a coalition were suspended for the time being, but there was no deadlock, and when we (PML-Q) would go in the assembly and elect the speaker by a secret ballot, things would start settling down.
Earlier, speaking after meeting with Jamali, Maulana Fazlur Rahman said the doors of his alliance were still open for a dialogue with all parties including the PML-Q and PPP to decide on a government of national consensus for steering the country out of the present deadlock situation.