Ex-members of PML-Q misguiding PM: Tariq Cheema

Housing minister says no headway in talks between his party and PTI

LAHORE: The PML-Q, a disgruntled ally of the ruling PTI in Punjab as well as in the Centre, claimed on Wednesday that some of its former members were misguiding Prime Minister Imran Khan and there had been no headway in the talks between the two parties.

Speaking to reporters in Sialkot, Federal Housing Minister Tariq Bashir Cheema, flanked by fellow PML-Q leader MNA Moonis Elahi, said there could be no breakthrough until the ruling party fulfilled the agreements it reached with the coalition partner.

Cheema underlined that his party’s basic agreement with the government was to provide relief to the people.

“We wanted to work together for the prosperity and welfare of the people. Unfortunately, that environment could not be achieved,” he added.

“Inflation is spiralling out, there has been no change in unemployment rate and the law and order situation, and gas and electricity tariffs are being jacked up every now and then.”

The minister said the PML-Q, being a coalition partner, was requesting the government to bring the situation under control.

“We are riding in the same boat. Our gains and losses are mutual. We are asking you [the government] to bring these matters under control and I don’t think this is an unjust demand.”

Cheema said that if the government’s boat sank, it would be because of its own wrong decisions. “We are not part of those wrong decisions. If they [PTI] are punished for making them, why should we go down with them,” he added.



“The PTI is a big party and it has its own understanding of matters,” he replied to a reporter’s query.

On a question about all coalition partners expressing their reservations at the same time, the minister said his party had made its stance clear and other allies should do so as well.

On the committee formed by the prime minister to placate the reservations of the PML-Q, Cheema said Punjab Governor Chaudhry Sarwar, who was one its members, was saying in a TV interview four weeks ago that the bureaucracy was not following his instructions.

“If he [Sarwar] can’t get his own issues resolved, what can he do for us?” he added.

The minister maintained that Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, also a member of the committee, was the one who had signed an agreement with party 18 months ago. “If he wanted to address our reservations, he would have done it 18 months ago.”

Punjab Environment Protection Minister Bao Rizwan, MPA Ansar Baryaar and PTI Central Punjab President Omer Farooq Dar were also present on the occasion.

The PML-Q is increasingly becoming disillusioned with the PTI and more vocal about its grievances. Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood, a member of the new committee of negotiators, reached out to PML-Q’s senior leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi on Monday, but he asked for assuaging his party’s grievances first.

Earlier, Elahi said the affairs of four districts in Punjab where the PML-Q had a majority were supposed to be handed over to the party but the PTI had backed out of its word.