LAHORE, Jan 10: PML-N acting president Makhdoom Javed Hashmi has predicted a bleak future for the Jamali government as it is the product of rigged mandate.

Addressing an election-related meeting for his party candidate Inamullah Khan Niazi in PP-142 (Lahore), he said a government taking dictation from the presidency could not be expected to reflect the national aspirations and democratic values.

Javed Hashmi was critical of the policies being followed by the government. According to him, Mr Jamali had succeeded in taking a confidence vote from the assembly because the establishment and the PML-Q had many things in common.

He alleged that the government wanted to make Pakistan a state subservient to the US. But, he said, the ARD would not let him do that.

Provincial president Sirdar Zulfikar Ali Khan Khosa and Secretary-General Khwaja Saad Rafiq believed that the PML-N candidates would win both the seats in the Jan 15 by-elections.

PML-Q: The general council of the Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-i-Azam) is meeting in Islamabad on Saturday to ratify the unopposed election of Chaudhry Shujaat Husain and Salim Saifullah Khan as president and secretary-general of the party.

Some 900 members are expected to participate.

Party sources say that chief ministers of the Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan will also participate.

Mian Muhammad Azhar, who had resigned as party chief recently, will not participate.