New countdown: PML-Q dissidents told to prepare for show of strength

Show of strength urged to give PPP the clear message that the N-league is serious about implementing its demands.

LAHORE: Notwithstanding Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s assent to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) agenda, the PML-Q’s dissident ‘unification group’ has been asked to prepare for a show of strength to give a clear message to the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) the N-League was serious about implementing its demands, The Express Tribune has learnt reliably.

After Gilani phoned Sharif on Sunday, the PML-N formed a three-member committee under Senator Ishaq Dar to look after the agenda’s implementation, ending all speculation about PPP expulsion from the Punjab government.

The PML-N insisted that if the agenda remain unimplemented, it will sack PPP ministers in Punjab.

The PML-N’s deadline for the PPP-led government to accept its demands was set to end on Monday. A few members from the Q-League’s ‘unification group’ told The Express Tribune that the Punjab government contacted them all via DCOs concerned, asking them to attend a dinner at the residence of their group head Dr Tahir Ali in Lahore. They said that they have been asked to make a show of strength.

One PML-Q member said that around eight of their colleagues, who are from southern Punjab, might not be able to reach the venue on time, but the rest of them would make sure that they attend the function.

They said that the gathering was aimed at conveying a message to the federal government that the PML-N’s was serious about the implementation of its demands and it was not an idle threat.

PML-N’s Information Secretary Ahsan Iqbal said that a new 45-day countdown had begun. He said that the PML-N’s committee would “make sure that the agenda is implemented”, adding that the party would hold a meeting in Lahore to formulate a strategy in this regard.

Earlier, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said that the formula given by PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif was a “national agenda” aimed at mitigating people’s problems.

Stressing the need for national solidarity, he said that there could not be a better agenda for elimination of corruption, strengthening of the democratic system and resolving public problems.

He was talking to media after visiting an under-construction forensic laboratory near Thokar Niaz Beg.  The younger Sharif said that complete support “will be extended to the PPP in implementing this agenda honestly”. Urging the government to take action against elements who got loans worth billions of rupees written off using political clout, he said that failure to recover loans from people who led luxurious lives was a “complete negation of the efforts to root out poverty and provide large-scale employment to the people and amounted to playing a joke with the nation”.

Answering a question about the suspension of gas supply to Punjab, he recalled that during a meeting with the prime minister, it had been agreed that gas “will be provided to Punjab five days a week” but it was unfortunate that the decision remained unimplemented.

Terming the suspension of gas supply disastrous for the province’s economy, he said that it was necessary to save the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people.

He said that if the decision was not immediately implemented, protests would be held at all levels.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 10^th, 2011.