Unification Bloc list: 2 MPAs claim signatures were faked

Speaker requested to act against Ata Maneka.

LAHORE: Two PML-Quaid-i-Azam MPAs have accused Mian Ata Maneka, a leader of the dissident PML-Q group the Unification Bloc, of faking their signatures in a list sent to the Punjab Assembly speaker.

On February 3, the speaker was sent a list of 47 PML-Q members, with their signatures, who were members of the Unification Bloc. They sought to form an independent parliamentary group, headed by Dr Tahir Ali Javed.

On Monday, MPAs Muhammad Rizwan and Zulqarnain Sahi submitted applications to the speaker saying that Maneka had forged their signatures and they were still loyal members of the opposition.

They, along with Opposition Leader Chaudhry Zaheeruddin, urged the speaker to take action against Maneka.

“Whenever the PPP tries to blackmail the PML-N in Punjab, they bring out the Unification Bloc to save the provincial government,” Zaheeruddin later told reporters in his chambers. He said the Sharifs should respect the mandate of other parties and learn some ethics. He said that the PML-N had been “buying” MPAs since the 2008 general elections and was now finally trying to split the PML-Q.

He said that this episode showed that the PML-N leadership had learnt nothing from their eight years in exile. They had started “the politics of turncoats and Changa Manga” from where they left it. He alleged that the Unification Bloc “turncoats” had been “fed government funds” and warned that the opposition would file a reference against them if they tried to vote in favour of the PML-N in a confidence motion.

Zaheeruddin said that other MPAs’ signatures had been faked too, but did not name them. He said that if Maneka wanted to become opposition leader in the assembly, he should contact Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, who could make him opposition or parliamentary leader in a week.

He claimed that the PML-N had been using the police to victimise PML-Q workers and leaders since they came to power in Punjab in 2008. He said that 200 false cases had been lodged in each constituency against PML-Q officials.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 8^th, 2011.