PML-Q assured complete support to PTI: NA speaker

ISLAMABAD:

National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser on Friday revealed that Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi had assured him of his party’s complete support for the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) amid meetings with the leadership of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P).

In addition, the NA speaker said that tabling a no-confidence motion was the opposition’s constitutional right but the “government faces no danger in this regard”. The reason, he said, was that the allies were with the government.

The speaker also said the country was more important than politics and the opposition should wait for the next general elections instead of doing “negative politics”.

The NA speaker’s statement comes following his recent meeting with Elahi – who is the Punjab Assembly speaker and top leader of the PML-Q, which is the PTI’s only ally in the Centre and Punjab – after Elahi’s back-to-back meetings with the PPP and MQM-P leadership and ahead of an expected meeting with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif.

“All allies of the PTI are standing with the government,” the NA speaker said, adding that Elahi “assured him of his party’s complete support to the PTI”. The revelation came during his address at the University of Management and Technology (UMT), Lahore, on Friday.

Qaiser, however, while referring to his meeting with Elahi admitted that there were things that needed to be addressed when he said that “routine bickering is a part of every household”. Elahi’s recent comments that the opposition’s kitchen was being stuffed and the PML-Q would decide only after something came to the fore had upset the ruling party.

READ Shehbaz accuses Qaiser of 'partisan' handling of joint session

In his speech, Qaiser while asking opposition parties to refrain from doing “chaotic politics” as it was against the interest of the country said that they were free to bring a no-confidence motion as the allies were with the government.

Asking the opposition to refrain from doing negative politics, Qaiser said that the country was facing different national and international challenges and, therefore, the opposition should wait for the next general elections. “Country is more important than politics,” he said.

He challenged the PML-N leadership to reveal the names of all those PTI leaders whom they claim were in contact with them. Qaiser’s meeting with Elahi has come on the heels of PML-Q leaders’ meeting with former president Asif Ali Zaradri and the PTI’s coalition partner in Sindh, MQM-P.

Both the meetings as well as Chaudhry brothers’ expected meeting with the PML-N leadership has compelled the ruling PTI to launch a counter-offensive as the meetings fuelled speculations that the government’s coalition partners were weighing other options.

Countering the opposition parties’ political moves against the government, Prime Minister Imran Khan, the speaker and key PTI leaders have said that the opposition parties were standing together just to save their skin as the process of accountability was swiftly moving forward.

The opposition parties are trying to convince the PTI allies in Punjab and Sindh to silence the coalition partners as they were equally being blamed for all government policies and actions, especially the rising inflation.

The political temperature is rising with each passing day as not only the opposition parties started reaching out to each other but have also started pinning hopes on the government allies that they would go against the ruling party when the time comes.

Addressing the faculty members, the speaker said that teaching was a sacred profession and a single teacher could help bring about a revolution in society. He said that the profession demanded commitment, devotion and dedication, adding that “a teacher shows the path to success to his students.”

Qaisar said the government was taking measures to provide quality education to students so that Pakistani universities could make a place in the world ranking. “The national universities should compete with foreign ones like Oxford or Cambridge universities.”