Unification Bloc meeting: Rebels vow to back PML-N, expose PPP’s ‘dirty politics’

The unification bloc unanimously pass a resolution supporting the PML-N

LAHORE: The Unification Bloc attacked both PML-Q and PPP on Monday.

During a party meeting held in the committee room of the Punjab Assembly (PA) they unanimously passed a resolution supporting the PML-N.  It was also decided in the meeting that the PPP’s attempts at buying PA members’ loyalties by offering hefty packages during governor’s rule be made public. As soon as they stepped out of the meeting, Dr Tahir Ali Javed played taped conversations ostensibly between Neelam Jabbar – a former PPP provincial minister – and Arshad Jutt –a Unification Bloc member – as proof that PPP had tried to buy support to form a PPP-led government in the Punjab.

The conversation apparently took place between Arshad Jutt, who provided the recording, and Neelam Jabbar and her husband Chaudhry Jabbar. In the recording, Chaudhry Jabbar calls Jutt on his mobile phone and starts the conversation by inquiring about his brother’s case. Chaudhry Jabbar then tells Jutt that Neelam, sitting with him, wants to speak with him.

Neelam starts her conversation by telling Jutt that an MPA reaches the assembly after a hard struggle, “An MPA should think about his own interests instead of that of a group or party”, she says.

Neelam then assures Jutt of PPP’s support in return for his. “My husband and I have met the president and he assured us that the party would give every thing to Unification Bloc members if you support the PPP in the Punjab,” she can be heard saying.

Neelam then inquires about the number of Unification Bloc members to which Jutt replies that he can count on 35 members.

“We will jointly decide who to support,” he tells Neelam. Jutt complains about police continuously bothering him and his family. “They’ve even lodged an FIR against my brother under Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code,” he says to which Neelam again assures him of PPP’s full support.

The conversation ends with Neelam and Jutt fixing a time and place, Lahore, for a meeting to negotiate further. Neelam tells Jabbar that if the meeting is successful, a meeting with the president would be arranged. With that the recording ends.

Jutt, after playing the recording, told reporters that PPP’s allegations that the Sharifs had been trying to buy the Unification Bloc’s support were baseless. “We never sold ourselves to the PPP during the governor’s rule. Why would we strike a less than honourable deal with the Sharifs now?” he asked.

When The Express Tribune contacted Jabbar for her version she said that she had only called Jutt to inquire about his brother Khalil, who was on the run at that time, because he had been nominated in an FIR.

Dr Tahir Javed, the Unification Bloc leader told reporters said that the bloc had proven its strength again, “while Chaudhry Zaheeruddin had failed to do so yet again”. He accused the federal government of hatching a conspiracy against them and of trying to malign them.

When asked whether or not the Unification Bloc would reply to the show cause notices issued by PML-Q’s Opposition leader Chaudhry Zaheeruddin, he said that that they were not going to reply.

He called the letter, which Chaudhry Zaheer had sent him, “illegal and immoral”. He also told reporters that he had told all PML-Q members to attend the party meeting, “but some members did not attend on Chaudhry’s direction”.

He said that doors to the Unification Bloc were open to the rest of the PML-Q members.

Javed told reporters that the bloc had also decided not to issue any show cause notices to any members, including the Opposition leader, for the time being.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 1^st, 2011.