PML-Q distances from merger move

PML-Q sets conditions saying that they would be on board only if those who left them first, came back.

ISLAMABAD: Although the Chaudhrys of Gujrat were initially agreeable, the Pakistan Muslim League- Quaid (PML-Q) kept itself at a distance from the Pir Sahib Pagara led meeting on the merger of the ‘Leagues.’

They set conditions that they would be on board only if those who left them first, came back.

Leaders of various smaller factions of Muslim Leagues met in Karachi on Friday and formed a committee headed by former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali to formulate modalities for a united Muslim League.

The move for the merger suffered a major setback by the PML-Q, which though  internally fractured, still has noticeable presence in the parliament and Punjab Assembly.

The most dominant among the leagues-Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had already declined to become part of any such arrangement, but Pir Pagara is still hopeful that he will succeed in getting the right wing parties under one umbrella-a rare possibility in the given situation.

“We believe that there are only three factions of Muslim Leagues… PML-N, PML-Q and PML-F…we have asked Pir Pagara to ask the leaders of PML-Q break away factions to first come back to the party fold, before moving ahead for any alliance or merger,” said Kamil Ali Aga information secretary of PML-Q. He added that Sheikh Rashid, Ijaz ul Haq, Jamali, Hamid Nasir Chatta and Saleem Saifullah all betrayed the PML-Q and made their own factions.

Interestingly, the PML-Q itself was formed after the merger of splinter groups of different parties, mainly those who parted ways from Nawaz Sharif after the Gen (Retd) Pervez Musharraf led military coup in 1999.

After the 2008 general elections, the PML-Q was further divided into various smaller factions-mostly one-man-show parties. Only the Pir Pagara led Muslim League Functional and more recently, the broken away “like minded” group of PML-Q have some presence in the national and provincial legislatures ­— but not significant enough to make any difference — sans taking Chaudhrys’ led PML-Q along.

PML-Q was initially in the loop with the Pagara-led unification effort and Chaudhry Shujaat and Mushahid Hussain had held meetings with Pir Pagara in Karachi. They had also announced that they would support Pagara’s efforts for a united Muslim League and asked him to hold talks with the PML-N.

Some insiders believe that Shujaat played a clever move by approaching Pagro to save his faction from further disintegration amid fears that many of his members might join Musharraf. By this, the politically astute Shujaat tried to give an impression that a bigger alliance of Muslim Leagues was on the cards.

Once Musharraf had his launching of the AML, where he failed to put up any noticeable show, the Chaudhry’s have now decided to adopt a “wait and see” policy. More recently, the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party also approached the Q-league for a cooperation at the centre. Punjab-modalities of this collaboration are also yet to be formalised.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2010.