Breaking ties: Qureshi has ‘options’, if thrown out of PPP

Qureshi says he will make an announcement after party’s decision.

ISLAMABAD:


Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) stalwart Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Friday expressed his readiness to face termination from the PPP saying he had ‘options’ in case the party decided to throw him out.


Addressing a press conference, Qureshi said he is an elected public representative and not a student who needs to take permission for everything, referring to his meeting with Pakistan Muslim League-N Chief Nawaz Sharif.

“I have options [to join other political parties] but I am not in haste” said the former foreign minister, who is in the line of fire particularly after a meeting with Sharif. Qureshi said that he would announce his “future course of action after the decision of his party”.

Removed from the federal cabinet in the aftermath of the Raymond Davis controversy, the isolated member of the ruling PPP government is on the verge of losing his party membership after the Punjab chapter of the party asked President Asif Ali Zardari, who is also the co-chairman of the party, for his termination.


However, Qureshi justified his meeting with Sharif by saying that he had called on Sharif as a politician which was not in violation of the party’s discipline.

Talking to journalists, Qureshi said his party membership was being cancelled due to his meeting with Sharif despite the fact that Benazir Bhutto herself had reconciled with him and both the parties had jointly struggled for the restoration of democracy.

Responding to a question about his ‘options’, Qureshi said he enjoyed an old friendship with PTI chief Imran Khan and Mian Nawaz Sharif was a seasoned politician, but his announcement would be made after the party’s decision is finalised.

“I raise the flag of revolt against democratic dictatorship,” he said, adding that ‘back benchers’ of the PPP were silent, but not unaware of the situation.

During the briefing, without actually naming President Asif Ali Zardari, Qureshi said: “Had Mohtarma been alive, would ‘this man’ have had position he is on?”

Shah Mahmood Qureshi indicated he would not quit himself, but wait for the party’s decision.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 9th, 2011.
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