‘No blanket amnesty for PML-Q dissidents’

PML-N decides to invite only those legislators whose constituencies lack party presence.

LAHORE:

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has decided not to offer a blanket amnesty to PML-Q dissidents, but ‘invite’ only those lawmakers whose constituencies lack strong PML-N candidates, sources told The Express Tribune on Monday.

The decision was made during the party’s two-day-long informal consultative meetings with senior party leaders, including its chief Mian Nawaz Sharif.

“The party leaders held detailed discussions on the pros and cons of the alliance between the PPP and PML-Q and (decided that a) final decision about the fate of the like-minded (group of the PML-Q) would be taken in the joint meeting,” the party sources said.

Senior PML-N leaders, sources said, informed Nawaz Sharif that most of the PML-Q’s like-minded members in the National Assembly were unwilling to join PML-N after waiting for PML-N assent for three years.

May 2 incident

Although the party leaders are learnt to have decided to remain silent on the army and the ISI’s failure on the May 2, they decided to ratchet up the criticism of the federal government.

The sources said that Sharif might negotiate with the establishment over the Abbotabad issue on certain conditions. They said that if negotiations were successful, the PML-N might tone down its criticism of the embarrassing episode.

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