Zaheer likely to move court on ‘defectors’

PML-Q likely to move LHC against Unification bloc.

LAHORE:

The Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-i-Azam is likely to move the Lahore High Court on Monday against the Unification Bloc.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Chaudhary Zaheerud Din said he was encouraged by reports on Friday that only 22 MPAs had attended the Unification Bloc’s parliamentary party meeting.

He said he would wait for the speaker to forward his references against nine Unification Bloc members to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC). He said the speaker was bound by law to forward the references in two days but he was sure he would not do so.

He said if the Unification Bloc served him a show-cause notice or asked the speaker to send a disqualification reference against him to the Election Commission he would challenge the action in court. However, he added, he was sure the Unification Bloc would not issue such a show-cause notice.

In a press conference on Friday, Zaheer alleged that the Sharif brothers were the main architects of the Unification Bloc. He said the bloc had set up an office at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat. He accused the bloc of using the Punjab government’s funds for sending invitation letters for its meeting to the PML-Q members.

He said he had asked the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) to join his party in calling for Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to seek a fresh vote of confidence.

He said the chief minister appeared to have lost majority in the house. He said Khawaja Ehsan and Sardar Zulfikar Khosa of PML-N had invited Unification Bloc members to several dinners since its formation in 2008.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 5^th, 2011.